This is the Decision They Must Make
by detonatingUnicorn
Summary: Sequel to This is the Decision I Must Make. A year has passed since Cyrus had been forced to power Cryptor off. Still mourning the loss of the robot, Cyrus receives a wave of memories and makes the decision to turn the android back on. How will Cyrus get Cryptor's life back in line, and who is this mysterious hero running the streets of Ninjago? (AU)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Welcome back my friends! Or un-friends, you're not a friend yet until you read the first one, so if you haven't, get out of here and go read it, I don't want to see you again if you haven't. Louis and I have completed the sequel to "This is the Decision I Must Make", but well, you probably already know that from the summary. Louis and I really just were having a bunch of fun with this one and doing things in here for our own entertainment, and hopefully you will enjoy it too. Louis and I just couldn't leave it off on that last note, it was just too sad for us. And I'm going to warn you, be prepared to laugh because there are some pretty funny moments in this one, or at least, I think so. Unlike the last one, this one did end up being a little longer chapter wise, and has five more chapters than the other. There will also be some chapters you will look at and know right away it was my idea because I need to get my mind out of la la land, you'll know what I mean soon enough if you don't. I could probably keep blabbering on to you guys about "This is the Decision They Must Make," but I should probably shut up and just let you get to the reading.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

It was mid-day. The sky was grey with thick clouds and everything felt slow. There was a distinct feeling of boredom felt by most. It had been a slow work day at Borg Tower, especially for Cyrus Borg. Other than overseeing some beta testing of a few new prototypes and some minor paperwork, there was not much to do.

While doing his paperwork, Cyrus noticed he was missing an important form. After looking through his office without finding it, Cyrus figured it may have been misplaced. Going down to his lab to check the file cabinets, Cyrus sat in the doorway. Looking around the room, the inventor felt saddened.

The lab was full of happy and sad memories for Cyrus. Whenever he entered the lab, he could not help but remember Cryptor. It had only been a year since Cyrus had powered Cryptor down. Although Cyrus was no longer entirely depressed, he still missed the android.

Cyrus sighed, finally entering the room all the way. Heading towards the filing cabinets, something caught his eye. On the floor he saw a worn out, black ink pen sticking out from under a set of cupboards along the wall. Leaning down over his handlebars, Cyrus picked up the pen. Examining the pen, it reminded him of the one Cryptor use to click repeatedly.

Cyrus frowned, clicking the pen once. He bit back a little sob as he clicked the pen again. He remembered how Cryptor would click the pen when he was bored. It did not take long for Cyrus to remember what he had done to Cryptor and that he was gone.

"Cryptor." Cyrus choked back another sob. He tried to keep himself from crying, but failed when the image of Cryptor being shut down crossed his mind.

The inventor broke down sobbing into his hands. Unable to contain himself, Cyrus cried to himself. Remembering his time with Cryptor was painful. He missed Cryptor too much.

As the inventor cried, he began to think. Although Cryptor had been powered off for a long time, he was not truly dead. Cyrus could power him on again if he wanted. However, if he did turn Cryptor back on, they would probably have the same problems as before if not more.

Mentally debating with himself, Cyrus began having ideas and plotting out different scenarios. He thought of ways to prevent the same problems they had before. As he formed a plan, Cyrus began to feel determined to revive his android. It was not like the other times that he had thought about bringing Cryptor back. He meant it this time.

Having some preparations to do, Cyrus called a few free employees. He asked them to bring Cryptor's body to the lab and to lay him on the table. When they left to do just that, Cyrus found P.I.X.A.L. and gave her all of the money from his wallet, sending her out to get some much needed supplies.

After that, Cyrus began preparing. It took him about two weeks to get everything in order. Once everything was ready though, Cyrus readied himself for turning Cryptor on. Leaning over the same table he had built Cryptor on over a year before, Cyrus powered on his creation once again.

"Cryptor..."

Cryptor almost immediately gasped when powered back on. When he was powered off, he wasn't aware of losing power, but for a brief second, had felt his body begin to collapse and hand release from the doorknob. He was on a table now, definitely not the door. He heard an apology and now here he was, Cyrus speaking to him. He almost immediately shot up into a sitting position, hardly even possessing the change of location or anything through the rage and feeling of betrayal.

"What is wrong with you?!" He shouted as he shot up with a glare. His eyes falling on Cyrus with a glare. "Why do yo-" He then continued to rant before he immediately locked up, finally figuring out all the changes. The position change, Cyrus was much closer. Everything looked different. His look of hostility quickly transformed into a confused one as his gaze analyzed everything, scanning across Cyrus through the room, even to himself. Cyrus watched Cryptor look around in confusion. It was good to see Cryptor alive again, but Cyrus still felt guilty. Knowing full well that Cryptor would be angry with him, Cyrus moved back and gave Cryptor some space.

"I... I see that you've noticed the change." Cyrus said, clearing his throat. "You see... I... I ended up powering you off..."

"I think that's been made rather obvious." Cryptor growled, throwing a glare at Cyrus. "Stupid public and their illogical thought processes." Cryptor then looked down the inventor. "How did you power me off from such a great distance?"

"Well... when making some repairs, I made a remote to power you off from afar." Cyrus said, pulling the remote from his pocket. He had retrieved it before powering Cryptor on. "I never wanted to use it, but I made it in case I ever needed it." Cryptor frowned, glaring at the remote harshly.

"Good to know you trusted me enough to make that." He hissed with irritation. Grumbling as he swung his legs over the edge of the table, Cryptor began to notice some differences in himself as he moved. "What did you do to me? I feel different."

"I... downgraded you a bit." Cyrus admitted, dreading the next thing he was going to stay. "Being shut off as long as you have, your body has aged too." Cryptor jerked and tensed at the inventors words.

"How long, have I been off?" Cyrus frowned at Cryptor's question and looked down at his lap. Cryptor would hate him, but that's what he deserved.

"A little over a year." He answered nervously. "I'm sorr-"

"A YEAR?!" Cryptor almost immediately started yelling, cutting off the inventor. "You left me off for a year? You leave me off you're a year and then you decide to downgrade me on top of that?! Why did you even bother turning me back on?! A year?!"

"I... couldn't stand to have you off... I wanted to turn you back on many times, but I was afraid that I would only suffer the same heart break if I did." Cyrus said, not looking up from his lap. "I turned you back on so you could have another chance at life, but you will never be the hero I had originally planned for you to be." Cryptor growled, hopping off of the table and storming across the lab.

"You think you can just leave me off for a year and just power me back on?! Were you just expecting me to except the fact and have a happily ever after?! Just to drop everything I have ever trained for in my life?!"

"No... I don't expect you to just be happy with all of this. I understand why you are angry and hurt. I know that this is a lot to take in and it's all so sudden for you, but I have reasons for what I did." Cyrus urged, watching Cryptor as he walked away. "I don't expect you to understand or forgive me right away or at all. I don't expect you to trust me ever again. All that matters to me is that you are alive and not just lying there like a corpse." Cryptor made his way over to the window to look out at the city, furrowing his brow as he analyzed it all.

"Perhaps it would have been better for you to leave me off forever." He growled with frustration. "What do you even expect me to do if I can't do what I was specifically built to do?"

"I... I don't know." Cyrus admitted. He knew that only one thing interested Cryptor. The android only enjoyed running free and fighting. "We have to keep you a secret... but perhaps we could find you a new directive."

"I don't want a new directive, I want my directive!" Cryptor shouted, swiftly spinning around to glare at Cyrus. "And I am not going to remain a secret! I am not going to hide from everyone for the rest of eternity!" Cyrus looked down at his lap, brows furrowed. He should have known that Cryptor would not want to change. Asking him to give up his old life was too much. It was unfair. If Cyrus had taken better care of him and taught him better, perhaps he would never have been shut off. It was all Cyrus' fault.

"Then... then I promise to find a way to let you become the hero I built you to be." Cyrus said, looking up at Cryptor. "I'll find a way... but until then, you will have to be a secret." Cryptor growled, clenching his fists.

"I am not going to stay a secret! You are not going to trap me in this stupid room again! You expect me to just sit around in here after a year?" He spat slashing a hand back to point out the window. "What even happened out there?!" Cyrus glanced out the window to see what Cryptor was talking about, remembering that Cryptor had never seen the hover roads.

"The City has been advancing rapidly." Cyrus stated, steering his chair closer to the window. "I promise that you'll get to explore the city again. You'll get to see all of the new technologies and new buildings, just bear with me." Cyrus paused and looked up at Cryptor. "You don't have to stay locked in this room, you know... Come with me. I have something to show you." He added, turning his chair around and heading towards the door. When Cyrus asked Cryptor to follow, Cryptor grumbled, continuing to glare at the inventor, but refusing to move from the position he stood. Noticing that Cryptor did not follow, Cyrus stopped and turned around. "Cryptor... I know that you are upset with me, but I really do need you to follow." Cryptor growled, glaring at Cyrus with crossed arms, before eventually turning his gaze to the ground and finally walking across the room to follow Cyrus.

When Cryptor followed, Cyrus turned his chair right around and steered it out into the hall. He knew that Cryptor was not happy with him and that he may never be able to make things right, but he wanted to try. Without a word, Cyrus led Cryptor to the nearest elevator. The two waited in silence as the elevator took them up to the floor just below Cyrus' office. Leading Cryptor through the halls, they stopped at a room. Cyrus put in a pin and the door opened.

The room had a comfortable looking chair by a large window at the opposite end. There was a sturdy desk set neatly against a wall and a dart board hung on another. The whole room looked a bit plain.

"This room is yours. You can charge in here at night or stay in here when you don't want to be wandering the tower." Cyrus stated. "No one is permitted to enter unless you allow them. The outside is passcode protected and the inside opens with that pad by the door. I'll show you how to change the passcode tomorrow..." Entering the room, Cryptor stared flatly at the room, hardly even looking at its contents. Even as Cyrus spoke, Cryptor hardly listened to what he said; something about a passcode and a door. Cryptor didn't care about much anymore. He really disliked the new situation he was forced into. He hated the time leap, the fact that in a blink of an eye a year had passed.

"I... I hope the room will suffice." Cyrus said, not knowing what else to say. "I suppose that I'll leave you alone now... I have work to do. You're free to roam the tower, but stay off the first floor." With that, Cyrus turned to leave, stopping at the door. He entered a code that would leave the door unlocked until he could teach Cryptor how to use it. Once that was done, he left to do his work.


	2. Chapter 2

After showing Cryptor to his room, Cyrus went to work. When the day was done, Cyrus stopped by the room to check on Cryptor. He did not manage to get a word from Cryptor before he left to head home for the night. It hurt to be ignored by Cryptor, but he expected as much. What he had done was unforgivable.

The next morning, Cyrus returned to the tower. Right away he went to check on Cryptor. To the inventor's surprise, Cryptor sat in the chair, slouching lazily and was unresponsive. Alarmed, Cyrus rushed to his creation's side. He could see that Cryptor did not have his charger connected. Panicking, Cyrus retrieved Cryptor's charger and frantically connected it to him. The inventor looked at Cryptor with furrowed brows and teary eyes.

"Cryptor, why didn't you charge yourself?" Cyrus asked, hoping to get an answer. Cryptor didn't resist the inventor's efforts to charge him; partly from being so low on battery moving took a lot more effort than needed. The question directed at the Nindroid only received a quick, lazy, glare. Much like last night, he refused to speak to Cyrus. The only reason he didn't charge himself was simply because he didn't want to.

"I'm sorry that you're unhappy, but please don't do this to yourself." Cyrus whimpered. He had a feeling that Cryptor would be having another suicidal phase. "Please..." Cryptor just let out a quiet grumble in response, his gaze having averted down to the ground away from Cyrus. It was highly likely that he would not consent to charging himself on his own for a while. Cyrus sighed, wiping away his tears before they could fall. He hated seeing Cryptor so upset. If only he had never shut him off in the first place. He should have tried harder to reason with the protesters. He was a failure.

"I'm sorry, Cryptor." Cyrus apologized, looking away. "I'm sorry about everything I've ever messed up... You deserve better and I'm going to try my hardest to get your life back on track." Cryptor let out a huff of annoyance as he listened to Cyrus, trying to block out the inventor's voice. Not getting a response from Cryptor, Cyrus left to see what work he would have to do. He knew that he would probably have to keep an eye on Cryptor today. When he returned, he was greeted with the same sight as before. Cryptor had unplugged himself.

Cyrus ended up having to stay by Cryptor's side for several days. Having to stay by Cryptor whenever it was time to charge, Cyrus got little work done. The inventor got little sleep due to Cryptor unplugging himself whenever he passed out.

The lack of sleep took its toll on Cyrus. Dark circles had formed around his eyes and he began to get confused easy. His body ached and he had become more emotional than before.

About three days after powering Cryptor on, Cyrus sat in Cryptor's room, staring down at his lap. The inventor mumbled nonsense to himself at a low volume. His eyes drooped and he suddenly passed out for the fourth time that day. Cryptor was annoyed a bit that Cyrus wouldn't leave him alone, why he wouldn't just let him power off. As the days went on, Cryptor watched Cyrus' condition worsen with the occasional glance he sent to him. Cyrus had been passing out a lot lately and Cryptor knew he had been getting little sleep. Seeing Cyrus pass out for the fourth time that day, Cryptor's light began to flash with his concern, and for once he decided to keep himself plugged in while the inventor was unconscious. Not long after falling unconscious, Cyrus' jerked up again. He looked over at Cryptor to make sure he was fine. Seeing that he had not unplugged himself, Cyrus slouched in his chair again, passing out once more.

The sleepless nights continued until Cyrus was certain that Cryptor would plug himself in and charge willingly. Even then, P.I.X.A.L. had to urge Cyrus to go home and sleep. With the inventor getting regular sleep, his mental and physical health got better. Although Cryptor had finally consented to charging himself, he still refused to speak to Cyrus. For several weeks Cryptor locked himself in the new room, refusing to leave or ever acknowledge that someone entered. As the days passed, Cryptor began to grow bored in the room, but never searched for something to do. Finally having grown so bored he couldn't stand it anymore, when Cyrus entered that day Cryptor finally spoke to him.

"You still have the sparing room?" It was a huge surprise to Cyrus when Cryptor spoke. He smiled a little, though he knew that the speaking did not mean he was forgiven. Steering his chair into the room and out of the doorway, Cyrus sighed. Cryptor would probably not like the news.

"I'm sorry, but we don't." Cyrus answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Since you were... it's been repurposed for testing prototypes." Cryptor frowned with a nod.

"Figured you wouldn't have it anymore."

"I'm sorry." Cyrus apologized. "You are welcome to check out the prototype room if you're curious. Maybe you could try a few out." Cryptor shifted a quizzical look up at Cyrus.

"Something to do would be nice."

"Well, then come with me." Cyrus said with a smile as he turned his chair around. The inventor then led Cryptor out to the elevator, taking them to the floor the sparing room had once been on. The large metal door was still present, but the inside had many stations set up for testing. Employees were at work at the stations, beta testing each new prototype and recording their data. Cyrus led Cryptor in and over to a specific station. At said station stood a familiar man. The inventor smiled as he tapped the man's back.

"Hello, Jackson." Cyrus said.

"Hey, Mister Borg." Jackson said without turning around. "You here to check on me?"

"No, but I brought an old friend." Cyrus snickered, looking up at Cryptor. Cyrus had kept a pretty tight lip about activating Cryptor again, so only a few knew. Jackson was not one of them, mostly because he had been on leave when Cryptor had been activated.

"Old friend?" Jackson questioned, turning his head to look back. He was completely shocked to see Cryptor. Surprised by the sight, Jackson set his clipboard down and turned to face the two. "Cryptor, it that really you?" Even with the name being mentioned, it took Cryptor a while to figure out who it was he was looking at. The shocked tone and familiarity the man had toward Cryptor confused at first before he figured out it was his old friend Jackson.

"You cut your hair." He observed. Jackson laughed and nodded.

"That I did." He replied, grinning from ear to ear. "It's great seeing you again. I really missed having you around... Are... are you here to stay?" Cryptor frowned at the question, looking down at the ground. He didn't know the answer, and right now he wasn't sure he wanted to continue to operate; he still wanted to be shut back down and stay that way for the time being. Cyrus frowned when Cryptor looked down. He knew that Cryptor was still upset. Who could blame him though? Losing a year in a blink of an eye wasn't easy. Not to mention everything that transpired before being shut down. It was all still fresh to him while everyone else seemed to have moved on.

"Uh... He will hopefully be staying for good." Cyrus answered with a faux smile. "I've decided to try to help him get his life on track again."

"Well, it's good having you back." Jackson said. "I should get back to work, don't want to fall behind."

"Jackson, could Cryptor join you?" Cyrus asked. "He's been bored and I think your company might do him some good."

"Well, sure. If he wants to help, I could show him what to do." Jackson stated with a nod. "Do you want to help me beta test?" Cryptor stared flatly. He wasn't all that enthusiastic about the new task, but doing something was better than nothing.

"I guess." He eventually grunted an answer to Jackson.

"Well, I'll leave you two in peace then." Cyrus said. With that, Cyrus turned to leave, giving Cryptor's back a pat before he left. Jackson smiled and waved for Cryptor to join him at his station.

"I'm testing some of Borg's newest prototypes." He explained, picking up a pair of gloves off of the table. "These are shock gloves for self-defense. I'm just about done going over their designs. Haven't found any major flaws other than how long they stay charged. At the moment, they're good for about one zap each, but that will get fixed fairly soon." Cryptor walked over to Jackson, taking one of the gloves to look at it closer. Rotating it in his hands, Cryptor looked fully interested in the object.

"How does it work?" He inquired. Jackson held the other glove and pointed at the mechanisms in the glove.

"This is part on the palm it what makes it work." He explained. "It's like what makes a taser work. See the parts on the knuckles are what shock. When you ball your hand into a right fist, it activates. Basically it for packing more power to your punches." Cryptor nodded; taking the glove he had in his hand and slipping it on and analyzing it on his hand. Finally he took the hand and triggered it, watching a short stream of sparks before he released his fist.

"It looks like it fits you rather nicely." Jackson observed. "I'd let you test it on that dummy out if it weren't already dead." Cryptor looked at the glove still on his hand before glancing over at the dummy and pacing over to it. Attention now completely at the dummy, he analyzed it, his gloved hand unconsciously curling into a fist from memories and triggering the electrical current and practically zapped himself. Quickly recoiling from the unexpected zap, Cryptor looked at it in confusion.

"I thought you said it only works once."

"I... it does." Jackson said, approaching Cryptor and taking a look at the glove. "Maybe it just had a little more juice... if so, you might want to take it off." Cryptor frowned, taking off the glove as he was instructed to, holding cautiously as he examined it.

"I'll have to take a closer look at them." Jackson said as he took the glove from Cryptor. Jackson then put on both gloves and made two tight fists. Examining them, Jackson stepped closer to the dummy. Without them working, he socked the dummy with one first then the other. Neither seemed to have any shock left.

"That's odd." He mumbled, pulling the gloves off. Then he set the gloves down next to his clipboard. "They probably have some bugs to work out." Cryptor walked over to the gloves once Jackson sat them down and picking them back up. Slipping them back on he pulled his hands into fists, watching the gloves let out a steady stream of electricity.

"Are you sure you're using them right?" Cryptor asked, shifting his gaze from the crackling gloves to look at Jackson.

"I'm pretty sure I know how to ball a fist." Jackson said, looking over at Cryptor. Curiously, the employee examined the electric gloves. It was odd that they worked for Cryptor. "I don't know what's going on here..." Cryptor frowned, finally uncurling his fists to analyze the gloves himself. After he had released the tight squeeze of his hands, Cryptor's movements had noticeably slowed down, although not enough for him to take notice of it himself.

"I'm not sure why they're working fine for me and not you." Cryptor mumbled, slowly taking the gloves off his hands. Seeing Cryptor's slowed motions, Jackson gave a suspicious look. He took the gloves from Cryptor and examined them.

"Cryptor, I think the gloves are leaching you're power." Jackson said with a brow quirked. Cryptor looked at Jackson in confusion, then realizing how slow his movements felt. Thinking about it, it made sense that is why they only worked when he wore them. Jackson couldn't supply energy to the accessory where as he could. Frowning, Cryptor looked at the gloves Jackson now held before turning around and heading for the door.

"Sometimes I hate being a robot." Cryptor grumbled as he stormed away. He needed to go charge unless he wanted to power off before he got back to his room.

"I'm sorry." Jackson called as he watched Cryptor walk away, not knowing what to say. He needed to record that the gloves leached power.


	3. Chapter 3

Cryptor made his way back to his room and plugged himself back in. The gloves had drained his power levels dangerously low, disappointing that he didn't even notice the critical impact. Having trapped himself within the confines of the room, Cryptor stared holes into the floor as he began to replenish his power levels. If it was left up to him, he probably would have had the gloves leach out the last of his energy, but knowing Cyrus, he would just get recharged and powered back on. Upon hearing what had happened to Cryptor, Cyrus immediately when to check on his creation. Peeking into the room, Cyrus looked in at Cryptor with furrowed brows.

"Are you okay?" He asked as he fully entered the room. "Did the prototype drain that much power from you?" Cryptor glanced up at Cyrus when he entered the room.

"I'm fine, and yes, they did." He grumbled.

"I'll have to get that fixed." Cyrus noted. "I sure hope that nothing else like that happens, because I was hoping that you could help check prototypes with Jackson." Cryptor frowned.

"As long as none of them shut me down." He grumbled. He didn't like having all that power sucked out of him very much, if Jackson hadn't figured it out before he had, Cryptor may have received more of the symptoms of low battery, perhaps even lose power all together.

"I doubt that anything like that will happen again." Cyrus said. "I guess you'll have to charge for a while now... I was hoping to show you something later, but it can wait until tomorrow."

"Show me something?" Cryptor questioned, wanting to know what.

"Yep. You'll get to see tomorrow." Cyrus said, turning to leave. "I have more work to do, so I have to go. I'll be sure to check in on you before I go home." With that, Cyrus left Cryptor to charge. The inventor finished working on time, staying at work a bit longer to work on his project with P.I.X.A.L. Getting a decent amount of work done, Cyrus checked on Cryptor like he said before going home. Cryptor was a little disappointed that Cyrus hadn't given any hints to what it was he wanted to show him, and was left all night pondering over the different possibilities, several of them being illogical. The very next day, Cyrus went right to Cryptor's room to check on him like he did every morning. The inventor entered and greeted Cryptor with a smile.

"Good morning, Cryptor." Cyrus said with a wave, stopping at the center of the room. When Cyrus entered the room, Cryptor immediately snapped out of his thoughts, his full attention averted towards the inventor. "How was your night?" Cyrus asked. "Boring?" Cryptor rolled his eyes, unplugging himself from the charger.

"How did you guess?" Cyrus chuckled and shook his head at Cryptor's snarky reply. He had missed how sassy Cryptor could be when he was gone. There was a lot he had missed when Cryptor was gone.

"Well, today is a new day and you can find a way to entertain yourself." Cyrus said with a crooked smile. "Maybe you can beta test with Jackson some more." Cryptor gave Cyrus an annoyed look, totally ignoring what he had told Cryptor the day before.

"You seem to be some brilliant inventor, but yet you keep proving to me otherwise." Cryptor hissed with crossed arms.

"Excuse you? How am I proving otherwise?" Cyrus asked with a brow quirked and a smirk on his face. "Mind giving me a hint?" Cryptor snorted.

"You're forgetful, neglectful, moronic, and annoying. That or you purposefully like to make a mockery of yourself. I'm going to go find Jackson, at least he's not as aggravating." Cryptor growled as he headed for the door, stopping to look at the keypad beside the door. "And you still need to show me how to change the code to that thing." He huffed before muttering an addition to the statement. "At least keep your petty face out of here…" Cyrus sighed and shook his head. Heading towards the door, Cyrus motioned to the keypad.

"Enter 3346 followed by the current passcode to set a new code." He stated. "The current code is 24758910. After that, you put in the pin you want and confirm it... come see me during Jackson's lunch if you're going to join him." Cryptor frowned ad he watched Cyrus leave, waiting for several moments before he turned to the keypad and changed the code to 01000011. After he did that he left the room and headed for the testing room, only to arrive to see Jackson was absent from the room. Finding some untested prototypes in the room, Cryptor went over to them, fiddling with them and figuring out what many of them did on his own. A lot of them seemed cool to him, and could be put to great use if even combined. Picking up a heavy combat like shoe, Cryptor activated it on accident and it quickly snapped back to the metal table. Blinking in shock for a few moments, Cryptor smirked before slipping the shoes on himself. By the time Jackson arrived, he was almost ten minutes late for work. He had slept through his alarm, so he was in a hurry. The employee hurried to the testing room, entering quickly. Jackson stopped abruptly at the sight of a few other employees looking up at the ceiling. Curious, Jackson looked up as well.

He was surprised by what he saw. Cryptor was hanging from the ceiling by a pair of thick boots specifically built for clinging to things. In awe, Jackson watched as Cryptor took a few steps with ease. With the boots on, Cryptor had quickly found himself walking up the side of the wall all the way to the ceiling. Having all the employees in the room's eyes on him, Cryptor didn't care as he wandered around on the ceiling. Staying up there for a couple of moments, Cryptor looked down and noticed Jackson had finally entered the room.

"I didn't realize you were a snail Jackson!" Cryptor called down to him, looking behind him before turning to go back for the wall to walk back down it.

"Snail...? I slept in." Jackson retorted, heading towards the same wall Cryptor was heading to. "Believe me, I got here as fast as I could...

"A snail can move as fast as it can too, but that doesn't necessarily mean it moves fast." Cryptor countered as he walked down the wall.

"You shouldn't be testing these prototypes on your own, you know." Jackson stated.

"It's not like the prototypes will do anything to me that hasn't already happened." The android snorted. Jackson crossed his arms as he watched Cryptor make his way down the wall. The employee shook his head.

"As long as you don't get hurt I suppose." He sighed. "Did you notice any design flaws or function issues while using the boots?" Cryptor looked down at the boots, finally making it to the bottom of the wall.

"No, they seem to work fine. They just stick to metal, they're pretty straight forward." He answered, leaning down and deactivating the shoes when he got to the floor.

"So they don't stick too hard to the metal? Moving was fairly easy, correct?" Jackson asked, watching Cryptor remove them. "They're comfortable too?" Cryptor looked at Jackson flatly with disappointment.

"Would you like to try them on? I don't think my answer to any of those would be very valid."

"Yes I would." Jackson nodded, grinning as he did. He had been looking forward to testing the magnetic boots since the day before. Jackson turned to fetch his clipboard while he waited for Cryptor to get out of the shoes. Receiving Jacksons answer, Cryptor immediately went into taking them off. Then finally getting them off his feet, Cryptor grabbed the heavy shoes and went over to Jackson to hand them over. Jackson took the shoes and handed Cryptor his clipboard and pen.

"Would you mind recording any problems I might find?" He asked as he went to put on the shoes. "The form is pretty straight forward. I think I can trust you to figure it out." Once the shoes were on, Jackson prepared himself for scaling the wall. Activating the shoes, Jackson placed one shoe on the wall. Jackson quickly tried to take one more step up the wall. When the other shoe connected with the wall, Jackson lost balance and fell flat on his back. Scaling the wall would be harder than he thought. Cryptor snickered, watching Jackson have trouble with the shoes.

"Having trouble with gravity?" He teased, already jotting down some quick notes making fun of Jackson's problems. "What, you having that much trouble holding yourself up?" Jackson frowned and sat up, his feet still connected to the wall.

"A little." He answered flatly. "I just need to get the hang of it…" The employee then got ready to try again. This time the employee was able to get about three steps in before losing to gravity again. Again and again, the employee tried to scale the wall. He managed to get a little farther each time. Jackson's struggles with the shoes received many jokes and streams of laughter from Cryptor.

One time after getting particularly high, Jackson fell and Cryptor caught him, saving the employee from a nasty landing on the floor below. After Jackson fell from the wall, Cryptor successfully caught the heavy momentum, then rather quickly yelping as metal and magnet snapped together. Quickly and rather carelessly, Cryptor let go of Jackson with one hand and reached for one of the shoes that stuck itself onto him, Cryptor shut it off before going for the other, dropping both of Jacksons feet to the ground.

"Perhaps that's enough using the shoes." Cryptor grumbled. "I'm pretty sure we both know how they work and its best to save you a trip to the hospital."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Jackson sighed. The employee got up and scratched the back of his head. "They're comfortable enough, but they'll probably need to be used by people with good core strength." Taking the clipboard from where Cryptor dropped it to catch him, Jackson read the insults with a frown. Cryptor was harsh. "Remind me to renew my gym membership." Jackson grumbled. Cryptor frowned, looking at the boots.

"Tell Craig that." Cryptor grunted before turning to go towards the other prototypes. "I assume you two are still in contact with each other."

"Well, yeah... but he's mad at me right now." Jackson sighed, picking up the boots to set them aside. He then filled out the parts of the form that Cryptor had missed. "I forgot his birthday and now he's not talking to me. That's kinda why I'm late. He usually wakes me if I sleep through the alarm."

"Don't people forget other peoples birthdays all the time?" Cryptor asked as he picked through various prototypes, not interested in several of the ones he already looked at.

"I suppose, but you're expected to remember when you have been with someone for so long." Jackson sighed, picking up another prototype. The device was shaped similar to a gun. Jackson immediately looked for the form that went with the prototype to figure out what it was supposed to do. Cryptor glanced over at Jackson as he picked out the gun. Immediately recognizing it from earlier, Cryptor took it from Jackson.

"Oh, that thing." He said as he took it from Jackson and holding it up and aiming at a target all the way across the room. "I used this earlier, it shoots this energy stuff." He explained as he clicked the trigger to get no result. Then growling he took his hand down and banged on the side of it. "Although it keeps jamming…" Then holding it up again he fired it at the target across the room. Jackson nodded slowly as he watched Cryptor use the prototype.

"Jamming, huh? I'll be sure to write that down." Jackson said, continuing his search for the form. Finding it, Jackson clipped it to his clipboard and began recording info. "Any other problems?"

"No. It just jams up. Besides that it's light weight and works really well." Cryptor answered before setting the gun down, then picking up a couple of small spheres. "These things I used too but they just explode when I use them and I don't think they're supposed to do that…" Jackson quirked a brow as he examined the spheres. He looked back at the forms and looked for the one for the spheres. Finding it, Jackson read the devices function.

"No, they're definitely not supposed to explode," He said, quickly filling in the form. "Anything else that you've tried out already?" Cryptor frowned as he scanned over the items.

"I used those three over there and that one right there, but I didn't see anything wrong with them. They all seem to work fine." He replied as he pointed at the objects. "A lot of these are pretty boring and not that exciting. I don't even see why someone would need half of these."

"It's not our job to judge practicality." Jackson sighed. "We beta test and report any bugs or design flaws. That's all." The employee looked over the prototypes that Cryptor had pointed at, twirling the pen he held in his fingers. "And some days are more exciting than others, just so you know."

"Whether it's your job or not, some of these are still..."Cryptor began to say before he fell silent as he caught sight of Jackson twirling the pen. "How are you doing that?"

"How am I doing what?" Jackson questioned, looking up at Cryptor with a raised brow. As far as Jackson knew, he was not doing anything awe worthy or interesting.

"The pen." Cryptor clarified.

"The pen?" Jackson repeated, looking down at the pen as he spun it between his fingers. "Spinning the pen? It's not hard. Do you not know how to do it?" Cryptor frowned, looking at the pen.

"No I don't. Do you think I'd be asking if I knew?"

"Cryptor, you are aware that you don't need to be so snappy, right?" Jackson asked rhetorically. He then held up his hand and slowly demonstrated how he spun the pen between his fingers. After going over it twice, he handed it to Cryptor. "You give it a shot now, wise guy." Cryptor took the pen with a frown, holding it like Jackson did and attempting to skin it like such, only to drop it. Grumbling, Cryptor leaned down to pick it up before attempting again, only with the same result. Jackson chuckled when Cryptor was unable to spin the pen. It was funny when you thought about it. The super skilled, highly coordinated battle android was unable to do a simple hand trick.

"Do you need me to show you again?" Jackson chuckled with a smirk, quirking a brow. Jackson's laughter infuriated Cryptor. He was losing his temper and quickly glared at the employee before thrusting the pen back towards him.

"Again." He growled.

"Okay." Jackson shrugged, taking the pen. Then he demonstrated how to spin it again, going slow for the android. "It's okay if you can't do it. I mean, I can't toss a ball back and forth to myself without dropping it." Cryptor stared at Jackson after he mentioned the ball before laughing.

"That's pathetic. I could do that before I could even walk."

"And yet you cannot twirl a pen." Jackson shrugged, smirking at Cryptor. The employee then handed Cryptor the pen and raised a brow. "Care to give it another try, Cryptor?"

"Just because I can't doesn't mean I never will." Cryptor grunted as he took back the pen. Then shifting himself to lean against the prototype table, Cryptor again attempted three more times, catching it a couple of times to keep it from falling to the ground. After the third attempt he was frustrated with the task enough that he picked up the pen and chucked it far across the room.

"With your temper, you'll never learn." Jackson sighed, shaking his head. "You've gotta learn to not be so angry." He added as he retrieved his spare pen from off the table. Cryptor growled, glaring at Jackson harshly.

"I'll figure it out later." He hissed before turning back to the prototypes. "Why am I even sticking around this place?" He huffed as he picked up a random prototype off the table to look at. "Because Cyrus wants me to? Right." He grumbled before carelessly tossing the prototype back on the table. Then right as it came into collision with the table, the weapon triggered shooting a hook straight at Cryptor and grabbing hold of him. After it grasped on to him it did nothing for a few seconds before shooting an electrical wave through it and into Cryptor. Getting the electrical shock, Cryptor stood there as it zapped him until it cut off the current and he crumbled to the ground, pulling the grappling hook with him and knocking down several other prototypes with it. On the ground he grumbled, shaking his head as he tried to recollect himself. "At least that works." He growled out of irritation.

"That's why you're careful with prototypes," Jackson said as he knelt beside Cryptor. "Are you okay? Do I need to get Cyrus?"

"I'm fine." Cryptor grumbled, reaching for the base of the grappling hook, a stream of electricity zapping when his hand came close to it. Withdrawing his hand for a second Cryptor stared at what he just saw before reaching for it again and retracting the hook. "I would recommend turning down the electricity on this thing unless you want to fry someone's insides out."

"Right." Jackson said, getting up and turning the setting down to the lowest setting possible. The employee then went to picking up the prototypes that had been knocked off the table. He did not bother to offer Cryptor help up. Cryptor would have just declined the offer. "Please be more careful henceforth." Cryptor frowned, getting up off the ground.

"Right…" He sighed, looking at the prototypes on the table and crossing his arms. "Why Cyrus thinks I should be in here I don't think I will ever understand. He's an idiot and I don't think he thinks things through. Why did he turn me back on in the first place? He's just going to have to shut me down again."

"Don't say that." Jackson said, brows furrowing as he grabbed his clipboard again. Cryptor glared at Jackson.

"Don't say what? That he's an idiot? That he's a self-centered douche? He's a moron and he irritates me? He probably just turned me back on for himself. Probably doesn't care about me or even how I feel about things. He gets manipulated to easily. Stupid public seeing me as an object and not a being. Cyrus gave into them too easily and I doubt he even gave it a second thought." Jackson dropped his clipboard abruptly and glared at Cryptor.

"Shut your mouth!" He shouted, clenching his fists. "You listen here and you listen good, you little brat. Shutting you down was the hardest thing Cyrus ever had to do, it nearly killed him! He was so depressed after shutting you down, he hardly slept or ate for weeks! I had to bring him food and remind him to sleep."

Jackson paused to look away from Cryptor, too angry to even look at the android. "He stayed by your side as long as he could." Jackson continued, glaring at the floor. "He spent this whole year hating himself, I know because I was with him as he mourned you. Cyrus blames himself for everything that happened, but it's not his fault. You were the one who decided to rip someone's face off, not him. He fought hard to keep you on, tooth and nail. Then he had to make the hard choice to shut you off."

Jackson shook his head, looking up at Cryptor again. "Then he gave you another chance at life and you have the gall to say that he doesn't care about you?" Jackson spat, glaring at Cryptor. The employee huffed and looked around, noticing that he had caused a scene. "I'm not saying that Cyrus hasn't messed up, but he cares a lot about you. You have to accept your part of the blame," Jackson added at a lower volume. Cryptor blinked in shock at Jackson's outburst. The news of Cyrus over the past year and seeing the new side of Jackson concerned the Nindroid, triggering the light on the back of his head to begin flashing. Frowning Cryptor looked down at the ground not wanting to look Jackson in the face.

With a sigh, Jackson went back to work in silence. He did not know what else to say about Cryptor, not that he wanted to speak to Cryptor at all at the moment. Everything felt awkward now. People continued to watch Jackson even as he worked, making the employee feel more awkward. As Jackson worked, he could practically feel Cryptor watching him. It almost made him feel bad for yelling. But he stood by what he had said. There was no interaction between Jackson and Cryptor while Jackson worked. The two kept quiet and away from each other. They only spoke when it was time for Jackson's lunch break. Jackson merely told Cryptor that he could leave if he did not want to work anymore before heading off to lunch. When Jackson had spoken with him, Cryptor simply explained that he was only supposed to stay with Jackson until his lunch break before the employee walked off to do so. Going their separate ways, Cryptor went in search of Cyrus, hoping into the elevator and taking it to the 100th floor.

When the elevator stopped on the 100th floor, Cryptor stepped out and into Cyrus' office. The android was greeted by the sight of Cyrus tinkering on a table that had been set in the center of the room. The inventor's back faced Cryptor as he worked, seemingly too into what he had been doing to notice the android. Most of the invention was covered by a white sheet.

"I sure hope this is sufficient." Cyrus mumbled to himself as he tinkered with a leg. As Cryptor stepped out of the elevator, the sight he saw confused him. Walking farther into the room, he tried to get a better look at what he was working on.

"Hope what is sufficient? What is that?" Cyrus' posture perked up when he heard Cryptor's voice. The inventor turned slightly in his seat and smiled at his creation.

"Oh, this is what I wanted to show you." Cyrus said, waving for Cryptor to come over to his side. "I've been making sure that the manufactured parts are all up to code, making sure that there are no factory errors. Projects as important and delicate as this need special attention." Cryptor frowned, furrowing his brow as he walked over to Cyrus.

"Important?" He mumbled, his eyes scanning over the form the white sheet draped over. Cyrus watched Cryptor look at the sheet curiously. The inventor turned the invention once more. He began to clear off the parts and tools, setting them aside neatly. Once the tools and parts were cleared, Cyrus pulled back the sheet so Cryptor could see what was underneath. Cryptor was a little surprised at what was reviled under the sheet, staring at if for several moments before he frowned. "A robot." He observed as he looked at it harshly.

"Yes... Before you say anything, I want to tell you why I'm building him." Cyrus said, looking up at Cryptor. "I built this body for you to transfer into so you can go outside and not be recognized. When he's done, you can transfer into him and go out when you want, then return to your usual body when you return." Cryptor jerked at the reasoning, quickly snapping his head to glare at Cyrus.

"No!" He practically yelled at the inventor. "I will not be going into that pathetic thing!" He snapped as he angrily pointed down at the lifeless robot on the table.

"This body isn't pathetic, it's incomplete." Cyrus sighed and shook his head. "It's the only way you can leave the tower for now." Cryptor growled, glaring at Cyrus.

"I will not go in that thing!" Cryptor spat. "Regardless if it's incomplete or not, I am not going to go walking around in a body that's not mine, especially one like that!" Cyrus sighed and shook his head.

"Don't tell me you're a Microphobe." He shrugged, turning back to the body. "I won't make you use the body if you don't want to, but it would be a shame to let it go to waste..."

"I'm not a Microphobe." Cryptor gritted his teeth, now glaring at the body. Crossing his arms he sighed as he glared it over. He did feel a little bad having Cyrus put so much work into something to have it wasted. The inventor did have good intents over the project; he just didn't want to walk around looking like… like that. "I wouldn't be able to reach anything in this. What would even be the point of going into the city if I can't even see through the people around me?"

"In this small body, people won't think that you can harm anyone." Cyrus explained. "People are less threatened by shorties. Not to mention you'll have a chaperone. Besides, this body is adorable."

"Yes, because I totally need to be cute and dependent on people." Cryptor hissed with irritation, leaning down to inspect the work on the robot closer.

"As I've said before, it would only be temporary." Cyrus repeated. The inventor wished that it was easier to please Cryptor, but he expected his creation to be difficult. "I promise that you'll get to roam free and be the hero I built you to be... for now, I hope my efforts are sufficient. I owe you much more than a spare body..." Cryptor sighed, leaning back up and crossing his arms again.

"If it makes you happy, I'll try it for a day." He huffed grudgingly.

"Alright." Cyrus said with a nod, smiling at the android. "I'll be sure to let you know when he's complete. It shouldn't be too long." Cryptor grumbled.

"I can't wait to be half the height of everyone." He muttered sarcastically as he turned around to go back to the elevator.


	4. Chapter 4

It took Cyrus nearly three weeks to complete the new body for Cryptor. He was extra cautious and had to make sure that everything was in tip top shape, not wanting there to be any problems. Upon running some test, Cyrus concluded that the body was ready. Cryptor was informed post haste. When Cryptor was ready, the inventor prepared him to transfer over to the new body. Having Cryptor lie out on the table in the lab, Cyrus powered him off to transfer him over to the small. The inventor connected Cryptor to the computer and temporarily uploaded his AI, then re-uploading it in the new, short body. Once that was complete, the small body was powered on.

Cryptor powered back on a little faster than his normal body, automatically feeling completely different and alien to the world. Grumbling, he sat up, clasping his head in his hand. For the most part movement felt the same besides everything being smaller and a lot stiffer, newer. Like normal, he turned to hang his legs off the table, only to find he had to pull himself forward a bit just to do so. With a frown, Cryptor stared down at his legs, seeing the much larger drop than normal. The sight caused his foot to twitch, feeling like it was supposed to be closer to the ground.

Eventually Cryptor got out of the petrified state and looked at Cyrus, finding himself looking up at the inventor even with the elevated help of the table. Flinching at the sight and almost cowering, Cryptor stared up at Cyrus, having the height change sink its way in. The inventor watched Cryptor, smiling at the android. The inventor steered his chair a bit closer to the now short android. Without a word, Cyrus helped Cryptor off the table. Cyrus then took Cryptor's hand and had him hold the table for support, knowing that he probably was not use to his body. Cryptor frowned when he got placed on the ground, standing in the form to find himself just barely taller than the table itself.

"We need to break in this body before you do anything." Cyrus stated, patting Cryptor's shoulder.

Cyrus looked over at the other body on the table. The body looked lifeless, making Cyrus remember how Cryptor had been gone for a year. He frowned, thinking about what he had done to Cryptor. The inventor had to avert his eyes, remembering the painful memories just by looking at Cryptor's lifeless body. Scowling, Cryptor went to look up at Cyrus, seeing the hurtful expression on his face. Tracing the inventor's sight he saw his normal body unconscious on another table.

"Cyrus, I-" Cryptor began to say before cutting himself, already knowing something was seriously off. "Wha-" He again began to say. Getting the same result, Cryptor's head quickly shot up to glare at Cyrus. Cyrus looked down at Cryptor when he heard him trying to speak. Whatever Cryptor tried to say, all Cyrus heard was beeping. Sighing at the sight of the android's glare, Cyrus shook his head.

"Don't look at me, I didn't intend for the beeping." He said with a shrug. "There's probably something wrong with the speech processor... we can fix it later."

"Fix it later?! You expect me to walk around in this thing with the addition of the inability to speak?!" Cryptor spat, letting go of the table he was holding onto to step closer to Cyrus. Quickly losing his balance in the body, Cryptor quickly brought his arm up to catch himself against the table, forgetting that he had to reach higher and his arm searching the air for something much higher. The result of the mistake caused Cryptor to topple over, clocking his head on the edge of the table as he went down. Now sitting on the ground under the table, Cryptor shook his head with a growl before glaring up at the table overhead. Cyrus gasped and went to Cryptor's aide immediately. The inventor reached down and helped the android up. When Cryptor was on his feet again, Cyrus inspected the body to make sure nothing was out of place.

"You're going to have to be careful until you're use to this body." Cyrus sighed. "I know your little outburst was due to the inability to speak, but it's not an easy thing to just fix. You can enjoy being outside without having to talk." Cryptor disliked the help Cyrus gave him, feeling more like he was getting jerked around by the inventor.

"I want out of this thing." He scowled up at Cyrus before jerking himself away from Cyrus, unsteadily making his way around him and towards the table his normal body rested on. As he walked, Cryptor felt like he was going to fall over any moment, almost achieving so several times. He had grabbed onto the table he was coursed for as soon as he could, practically falling into it. Cryptor frowned when he got to the table, looking down at his feet with disappointment. "I hate this body." He growled before getting up on his tip toes as he tried to look at the old body, reaching across the table to grab one of its hands to pull it closer. Cyrus' sight was again brought up to Cryptor's other body when the android tried grabbing his own hand. The inventor frowned, brows furrowing. He felt suddenly depressed. Shaking his head, he looked away from the larger, lifeless body.

"Cryptor, I can't understand you." He stated, his mood slightly audible in his voice. "Would you still like to go outside? Nod yes or no." Cryptor frowned when Cyrus spoke, looking over his shoulder at him before letting go of his hand and clumsily turning around to look at the inventor. Almost falling again when he moved, Cryptor reached up for the table again to keep himself standing.

"I know you can't understand me." He grumbled, glaring at Cyrus. "And no I don't want to go outside, I want out of this stupid thing!" He shook his head, pointing up at his body on the table. The inventor shook his head at the answer he received. He bit his lower lip and looked around the room. Spotting a pad of paper nearby, Cyrus quickly steered himself over to it and brought back to Cryptor. Handing the pad to the android, Cyrus pulled a worn down click pen out of his jacket pocket, giving it to Cryptor as well. Cryptor frowned, looking at the note pad and pen he had been handed, the objects feeling gigantic in his hands.

"Are you sure that you don't want to go outside?" Cyrus asked, tilting his head. "This may be the only way you can go out for a while... wouldn't you at least want to see the changes in the city?" Glaring up at Cyrus, Cryptor dropped both of the objects on the ground before sitting down in front of them, picking up the pen and trying to write. The task of writing proved to be more difficult for the robot than normal though and Cryptor was already grimacing at the task after making one line. Continuing on slowly, Cryptor's writing ended up a lot more sloppy than normal, some of his words combining into one and letters mashing together. Disappointed with the end result, Cryptor grudgingly held up the book to Cyrus.

"_I don't like this body."_ Cyrus read the note, sighing and shaking his head.

"I suppose that I could figure something out later." Cyrus sighed. "It may take a while... I figured you would be aching to get out of here though." Cryptor looked down at the ground with a frown. Sighing he took the paper to the pen and wrote.

"_I guess I can manage a day."_ He wrote before shaking his head and speaking as he held up the book. "I'm going to regret all of this…"

"Alright. I've told Jackson that he would be chaperoning you when you leave. He'll be waiting down in the testing room." Cyrus stated. "Do you still need help walking?" Cryptor tensed at Jackson's name, looking up at Cyrus warily.

"Does it have to be Jackson?" He mumbled as he stood up off the ground, quickly stumbling to the left before straightening himself out. Clumsily stepping back towards the pad and pen on the ground, Cryptor bent down to pick them up, then writing a quick and sloppy _"No"_ before handing the pad up to Cyrus.

"No, you don't need help walking?" Cyrus said after reading the pad. The inventor shrugged and shook his head. Cryptor was stubborn. "Well, I still think I should watch you until you got the hang of it." Cryptor glared up at Cyrus, crossing his arms.

"I can walk fine." He hissed, lifting one foot slightly off the ground to make an example. Making the example Cryptor almost automatically toppled over, quickly slamming his foot back down just to keep standing. "Sort of…" He grumbled in addition to his statement Cyrus shrugged at the beeping, knowing that Cryptor was likely protesting the offer for help. The inventor shook his head.

"Let's just get you a bit more use to these legs before I send you off." Cryptor frowned but knew Cyrus was right. He couldn't go out in the city if he couldn't even walk. Reluctantly, Cryptor agreed with Cyrus, beginning to practice using the short body. Mostly, Cryptor just walked all over the room, trying to readjust to the change, and eventually he could walk with a pretty good sense of balance. Once Cryptor seemed to be well balanced and able to walk, Cyrus sent him off to find Jackson. Upon arriving at the testing room, the android did not see Jackson at his station. Frowning Cryptor figured that he was late.

Turning to leave, the android heard someone clearing their throat from above. Cryptor looked up to see Jackson hanging from the ceiling by his feet. The employee's face was red and he looked a bit dizzy.

"Cryptor, is that you?" Jackson asked, waving at the android. "Cyrus said he had another body for you, but he didn't say anything about it being so small." Cryptor frowned at the sight he saw on the ceiling, rolling his eye and shaking his head. Unable to say anything comprehensible to human ear, Cryptor pointed down at the ground, ordering Jackson to come down from the ceiling. Jackson nodded slowly, heading towards the nearest wall. Carefully, Jackson scaled down the wall. He was aided by a pair of magnetic gloves to go along with the boots. Once he was on the ground safely, Jackson gave himself a moment to get over his light head before deactivating the boots and gloves. Shedding the gloves and boots, Jackson approached Cryptor.

"So, are you ready to go?" Jackson asked, patting Cryptor's head. Irritated with the pat of the head, Cryptor glared up at Jackson, swatting the hand away. Eventually relaxing from the assault, Cryptor glanced behind him at the door before looking at Jackson again.

"I would answer that question but all you're going to hear is beeping." He spoke more to himself than to Jackson. Then Cryptor held his hand like he was clicking a pen demanding for the utensil. It took the still dizzy employee a moment to understand what Cryptor was signing for. When he figured it out, Jackson went to retrieve a pen and his clipboard. Handing them both to Cryptor, he waited for the android to write out whatever he needed to. Cryptor had taken the tools as soon as it was handed to him, immediately beginning to write sloppy words out for Jackson.

"_Cyrus messed up, speech processors don't work. I can't talk, you only hear beeping."_ He explained on the paper before handing the clipboard back up to Jackson with an annoyed expression. Jackson nodded slowly as he read Cryptor's note. Shrugging, the employee handed Cryptor the clipboard and pen again.

"We can bring this in case you need to say something later." The employee stated, headed towards the door. "We're gonna stop to pick up some lunch if that's okay." Cryptor frowned, quickly hurrying after Jackson.

"I don't think you're expecting me to answer that, nor do I really have a choice." He grumbled as he tried to keep up with Jackson. The employee did not understand Cryptor. Jackson merely assumed that Cryptor agreed as he led him out of the room. Heading to the nearest elevator, Jackson took the now pint sized android down to the first floor and into the lobby. The lobby was not so busy, but there were a few people passing by. It did not take long for Cryptor to get noticed. As Jackson was taking Cryptor to the front doors, they were stopped by a woman. She leaned down and smiled at Cryptor.

"Oh my goodness. What a cute little robot." She said, patting Cryptor's head. "What does this little cutie do?"

"Uh... oh, he helps test prototypes at the moment." Jackson answered, feeling like he was on the spot. It didn't take much for the woman to seriously piss off the android. She made him want to hit her or something to get her out of his face. By now though Cryptor knew better than to attack civilians, the result was never a pleasant one. Thus, the small robot was left with the option of glaring at her.

"Don't call me cute." He hissed at her, backing a few steps away from her with a very irritated expression on his face.

"Aw, he's shy." She cooed.

"Mam, he's not a child... You're going to upset him." Jackson said, knowing that Cryptor was likely already angry. He did not need to deal with one of Cryptor's tantrums. "I'm sorry, but we have to go now. Good day." With that, Jackson took Cryptor by the hand and pulled him away. That woman probably would not be the last to note how cute Cryptor's current body was. He felt a bit guilty for letting that happen. Cryptor would probably be in a horrible mood for the rest of the day. Maybe even for a week. Cryptor frowned deeply at the woman's words, looking back at her with a harsh glare as Jackson pulled him away. Although he was thankful for the save, the position he was in now just added more irritation onto his already infuriated self. Glaring up at Jackson as they rushed away, Cryptor jerked his hand trying to get it out of Jackson's.

"Why did I even agree to this?" Cryptor spat, not caring if anyone could understand him or not. "I'm and idiot, I should have made Cyrus just put me back in when he asked! I didn't once stop to think how other people would react to this stupid form!" Jackson sighed and shook his head as he pulled Cryptor along towards the sidewalk. When Cryptor tried to pull his hand away, Jackson released him.

"I'll try to take you somewhere not so populated." He stated, heading down the sidewalk. "I would hate to let what just happened get repeated..." Cryptor frowned, looking down at the ground as he followed Jackson. The employee had a point, it was very likely that someone would do the same thing to him. Sighing, he finally looked back up, catching sight of the new city. Although the changes truly did fascinate the android, his mood was already ruined and he couldn't really enjoy it all. He was currently more focused on scanning everyone they passed, afraid that one of them was going to attack him at any moment.

For the most part, Jackson and Cryptor were ignored by the busy passersby. Occasionally a person or two would notice Cryptor and make a comment as they passed. Jackson felt bad for Cryptor, knowing that Cryptor probably did not want to be ogled because of his size. It was probably hard for the android to not snap at the people they passed. Cryptor was infuriated enough to the point where he had a permanent glare on his face. Several times he wanted to smack the people with the clipboard he had been forced to carry.

Jackson and Cryptor arrived at a small, not so populated convenience store. There were only a few other people including the clerk. Jackson took Cryptor in and went looking through the isles for something he would eat. Getting in the store and off the streets was a bit of a relief for the android, but he still didn't drop his guard. There were still people in the store and they could easily stop and prod at his obnoxiously 'cute' body. The small store itself eventually relaxed Cryptor and he would drop his guard until he caught sight of someone in the store. Cryptor would occasionally stop in the store to pull something off the shelf and look at it, only to put it back with a usually disgusted expression. Cryptor quickly got bored of the store though and began to trudge behind Jackson, giving an occasional glance up at him.

"How long are you going to be in this store?" He grumbled as he followed.

"What was that?" Jackson asked, looking down at Cryptor for a moment. The employee looked back up at the shelves. He then spotted something that he liked. Taking the packaged sandwich off the shelf, Jackson looked down at Cryptor again. "I gotta pay for this and then we can go wherever you want." Cryptor huffed, rolling his eyes. Wherever he wanted wasn't very much, he really just wanted to go back to the tower to get out of the stupid body. Following Jackson to the checkout, Cryptor wanted to hide below the countertop, not wanting the person at the checkout to say anything about him. As Jackson checked out, the clerk leaned over the counter a bit to look at Cryptor. He chuckled and rang Jackson up, stating the price out loud. As Jackson got out his money, the clerk tapped his fingers on the counter.

"So, is the little guy supposed to be your robot son or something?" The clerk asked.

"Uh... no." Jackson answered with a confused look as he handed the clerk the money.

"I see... What's the little guy's name?" The clerk asked as he put the money away. Then he handed Jackson his change.

"Uh... His name is Mindroid." Jackson answered on the spot. Cryptor frowned looking away as the conversation went on about him. Very irritated with that the clerk said, Cryptor heard the them ask what his name was. Snapping his head back to the two, Cryptor looked up at them both then getting a very confused expression when Jackson came up with a name.

"Mindroid?" He questioned the name before looking back up at Jackson with a glare, smacking him with the clipboard. "What kind of name is Mindroid?"

"Hey." Jackson grumbled, taking the clipboard away from Cryptor. Having the clipboard taken away from him, Cryptor reached up trying to grab it back, but Jackson had the board well out of reach and he quickly gave up on getting it back. The employee took the bag from the clerk, told him to have a nice day and then pulled Cryptor along out of the store. Then he lightly hit the android on the head with the clipboard before handing it back to him. Cryptor winced as Jackson bopped him on the head, grumbling as he took the object back. "Were do you want to go now?" Glaring at Jackson for several moments, Cryptor slowly tore his gaze from the employee to the clipboard to begin to write. Frowning, Cryptor handed the board back up to Jackson that simply said _"Tower"_ on it.

"You want to go back? Eh, I don't blame you." Jackson said after reading Cryptor's reply. Cryptor was probably tired of being treated like a child. This body was a big mistake. "We'll head back then... Maybe we'll try a different route though." Cryptor shrugged before writing some more on the clipboard.

"_As annoying as the attention I've been getting is, I do want to see the city."_ Looking over the words he wrote for a moment, Cryptor then decided to write a little more. _"What kind of name is Mindroid?"_ Jackson took the clipboard and read it, laughing at the end.

"Mindroid, because you're a mini-android." Jackson chuckled. "It was a bit on the spot, but I think it suits this body." Giving Cryptor a wink, Jackson motioned for Cryptor to follow as he headed off down a sidewalk. Cryptor frowned, grumbling at the reason behind the name. If it weren't for the fact that the name was mocking him, he probably would have found it humorous.

"It's dumb." He pouted as he followed behind Jackson, crossing his arms as he did so. Jackson led Cryptor down a new route to the tower. As they walked down the sidewalk, people would look down at Cryptor and smile at him. Many people commented on how cute he was. Jackson tried to take Cryptor down as many less populated paths as possible, understanding how furious the android was.

As they walked down a less populated street, Jackson spotted a shop he loved to go to. Mentally weighing whether or not he should break to go inside, Jackson decided he wanted to check out what they had in stock.

"Cryptor, I'm going to just pop into this shop." He said, pointing at a shop with robotics and mechanical items. "I'll only be in for a minute or two. Would you like to come in with me or wait outside?" Cryptor looked at the shop seeing all the robotic parts and mechanisms in the window.

"Why would I stay out here like this?" Cryptor questioned as he looked down the street, preferring to stick to Jackson for protection. Looking back up at Jackson, Cryptor remembered quickly about the speech problem before quickly copying down his answer onto the paper for him. When he was finally able to read what Cryptor said, Jackson nodded and led the android inside. There were only about four other people inside. As soon as the people saw Cryptor, they looked excited. They seemed to flock around Jackson and Cryptor, all looking down at the android. Cryptor jerked back when he entered the store and saw the group all immediately approach him, as he was expecting them to do something like call him cute or something of the likes.

"Wow, what a cool android." One of them said in awe. "This is probably the coolest thing I've seen in this shop." Cryptor obviously looked surprised by being called cool instead of cute. The word cool made him feel a lot better than he had throughout the day.

"Did you build him, Jackson?" The proprietor asked, looking up at Cryptor's chaperone.

"Nah. My boss did." Jackson sighed, scratching the back of his head. "You guys shouldn't crowd around him... he doesn't like that." As they all spoke Cryptor shifted his gaze between the speakers, getting a bit uncomfortable with having so many taller people all grouped so close to him with attention all directed at him. Shifting on his feet, Cryptor backed up a couple of steps, only to bump into Jackson before looking up at him. Looking up at the employee from the awkward angle, Cryptor rather quickly stepped himself back to where he was standing before, not really having anywhere to go in the circle. Jackson waved the others off, making them give Cryptor some space.

"Kev, have you gotten the parts I need yet?" He asked as he snapped at the proprietor, getting his attention. "If not, I'll just be browsing."

"Sorry, I haven't gotten them yet. They should be in by next Tuesday." The proprietor answered. "Hey, would you mind if we check out this android? We won't fiddle with him, just kinda look at him and talk maybe?"

"It's up to him." Jackson answered. "He's not much for talking right now though." Cryptor head quickly whipped back to glare at Jackson.

"Not much for talking? How about not able to talk?" He spat at the employee.

"Woah, he beeps." Another person stated, grinning at the android. "He's so cool."

"Does he have the clipboard so he can communicate?" Another asked, looking up at Jackson.

"Yeah." Jackson answered with a shrug. "Cryp- Mindroid, I'm going to browse. You can either follow me or entertain your fan base." With that, the employee headed off into the store. Cryptor frowned, following Jackson for a couple of steps before stopping, sending a look back at the group. Looking at them, he eventually turned back around to face them. As he didn't feel too comfortable with the strangers, he thought he might as well let them entertain themselves for the time being, and if he ever needed to he could always run over to Jackson. As Jackson left to browse, the proprietor knelt down to be closer to Cryptor's height. He inspected the android curiously. Fixing his glasses, he leaned in a bit to get a better look at the eyepiece.

"I wonder what this is for." He thought out loud. "What purpose does this thing serve? It can't be just for seeing." Cryptor frowned uncomfortable with how close the proprietor was to him. Backing up a few steps, Cryptor quickly scribbled out a few lines he had already wrote on the paper before writing and holding it up to him.

"_It's deactivated now, shoots lasers when on."_ The proprietor nodded and looked back at one of the other three.

"David, aren't lasers your thing?" He asked. "I mean, this little guy shooting lasers from his eye must be pretty interesting for you." The guy being spoken to stepped forward, standing at the proprietor's side. "Yeah. It's pretty cool. If it weren't deactivated, I would have loved to see it in action." David answered. "I wonder how powerful the laser was... why would this little guy need a laser though? He's not built to fight or something, is he?"

"Woah, what if he is?" A girl gasped, joining David by the proprietor's side. "That would be so cool. I bet he would be able to kick Kevin's butt."

"Gretchen, you could kick my butt." The proprietor chuckled, motioning at Cryptor. "So, are you built for fighting?" Cryptor chuckled at the group's conversation. Shifting on his feet for a moment, not sure how he should answer the question, Cryptor crossed his arms, hesitantly answering with a nod.

"Wow, he's so cool!" David exclaimed.

"What else should we ask him?" The last of the group asked.

"I kinda want to check out his robotics." Kevin stated. "Would it be okay if I took a look? I'm trying to make something robotic myself, and it might be nice to see something to compare it to." Cryptor frowned at the request, looking through the store to try and locate Jackson. Finally looking back at them, he continued to frown. Sighing, he wrote quickly.

"_Building what?"_

"Well, I'm sorta trying to make a light weight but strong robotic prosthetic for my brother." Kevin answered. "We don't have the money to buy one, so I've been building one bit by bit with spare parts." Cryptor frowned looking down at the ground, more so at his unfamiliar body. Beginning to write a reply, Cryptor took a bit with what he wanted to write.

"_I don't like being poked at, bad past experiences with people other than Cyrus. There isn't very much on me to see, a lot is covered up."_ Kevin nodded and stood up.

"I understand." He shrugged. "These guys probably have more questions for you, but I really should go make some orders and stock some shelves." With that Kevin left Cryptor with the others.

"So, if you were built for fighting, why has your laser been deactivated?" Gretchen asked, kneeling down like Kevin had. "Did it not function properly?"

"It works." He quickly answered, bringing a hand up to the eye piece. Cryptor wasn't really sure why Cyrus had added the part to the body in the first place, probably to make it look at least a little similar to his normal body. Then grumbling, he shrugged to answer her. "Not that I could tell you the real reason..." Unable to understand Cryptor, Gretchen shrugged.

"Why do you talk with beeping?" She asked, more curious about that now. "Did your inventor just want you to beep?" Cryptor shook his head at her, his eyes scanning over the clipboard. Finding the line he wanted, Cryptor pointed at it and showed her the first line on the sheet that read as _"Cyrus messed up, speech processors don't work. I can't talk, you only hear beeping."_ "I see. Is it a problem in your code or broken speech processor." Gretchen asked. "I think that Kevin might have one of those lying around if you want to get it fixed when you get home." Cryptor frowned, looking through the store for Jackson again, actually seeing him this time.

"I don't think I'll ever be getting back in this stupid body." He grumbled to himself as he wrote out the words, _"Cyrus probably has it handled."_ for her.

"Well, alright. If you are ever in need of a part though, this is the place to go." Gretchen sighed, looking up to see Jackson returning from his browsing. "I'm sure Kevin and the gang would love to see you again too."

"Yes, I'm sure he'll always be welcome here." David added, nudging Gretchen as she stood up.

"Ready to go?" Jackson asked, walking up to the android. Cryptor looked up at Jackson when he spoke, shifting a look back at the people he talked to before looking back to Jackson with a nod. Receiving his answer, Jackson bid all his friends farewell and lead Cryptor back outside. Once outside, Jackson looked down at Cryptor and smiled. "So, do you ever plan on going back?" He asked. "It would mean a lot to them if you do." Cryptor snorted at Jackson's question, jotting down his answer on the clipboard.

"_Not in this stupid thing." _Jackson chuckled and shook his head.

"They would be very surprised to see you in your real body." He stated, looking back up at the street.Cryptor laughed.

"That they would."


	5. Chapter 5

After their trip, Cryptor and Jackson made it back to the tower and Cryptor immediately went searching for Cyrus. Unfortunately being unable to find the inventor, Cryptor ended up waiting in his office, greeting Cyrus back in with the sight of an infuriated android. Getting back in his body, Cyrus attempted to ask Cryptor how it went, only to have the robot storm his way out of the room, shouting about how horrible everything was as he crashed into things.

A week had passed after Jackson's and Cryptor's little field trip and for the most part Cryptor's life had returned back to normal. He went back to testing the prototypes with his friend, occasionally grumbling about something that happened during his time out. He didn't let the experience go, not at all.

Like usual, Cryptor continued his daily routine. Heading for the testing room to work on prototypes with Jackson, Cryptor quickly stopped when he heard Cyrus talking to someone, hearing his name mentioned.

"Is Cryptor still troublesome?" P.I.X.A.L. asked as she walked beside Cyrus down the hall.

"Well, he's still stubborn if that's what you mean." Cyrus answered with a sigh. He stopped to look through some papers he had set on his lap. "He hasn't caused any problems since being powered on. No accidents, injuries, fires, or broken equipment... well not much broken equipment that is. He did break a prototype yesterday."

"Do you think that you can really change the public's opinion about him?" P.I.X.A.L. asked.

"Anything is possible if you approach it right." Cyrus shrugged. "I'm going to try my hardest to change everyone's mind about him... I just need to figure out how to do it."

"What if you can't change their minds?" P.I.X.A.L. inquired.

"Then I'll find some way to keep him alive." Cyrus stated, continuing down the hall. "There's no way I'm putting him back in the hall of failures..."

Cryptor frowned as he listened to the two talk, looking down at the ground knowing he wasn't supposed to hear the conversation. Tensing up when Cyrus spoke of the hall of failures, Cryptor couldn't just stand and listen anymore. Rounding the corner, Cryptor made his presence known to Cyrus.

"You kept me in the hall of failures?" Caught off guard by Cryptor's sudden exclamation, Cyrus jumped as if he were startled.

"Cryptor, you weren't supposed to hear that." The inventor gasped. He looked at P.I.X.A.L. with furrowed brows for a moment. Receiving a sympathetic look from her, Cyrus looked back up at Cryptor. "I'm sorry that you found out this way."

"Oh? And how was I supposed to find out? Walk in there and see an empty spot with a plaque containing my life story on it? Find my rightful place beside the sub-orbital golf cart?" Cryptor spat at Cyrus. "It's great to know I am such a big failure that I get the honors of being displayed in there for a year, I appreciate it! I always wanted to be placed beside the electronic papercut carving set! Thanks for displaying me as the trophy of the biggest mistake of all mistakes!"

"Cryptor... Putting you in there was a mistake." Cyrus said, shaking his head slowly. "Putting you in there was the biggest mistake I've ever made... I'm sorry."

"Mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake! I'm just a mistake! Everything about me is a mistake! You say you make mistakes with me and you keep adding! Stop apologizing and just admit already that I'm a mistake! Stop trying to convince me of all these lies! No one is ever going to like me and that's that! They're all just going to make you shove me back in that room! You say you're going to make them like me and you said that last time! You can't make anyone anything! I doubt you've even done anything about me! You're just planning on keeping me in here forever aren't you? You don't even want me out there do you? Always afraid something is going to happen to me! Well, new flash to you Cyrus! I'm not going to be trapped in this stupid tower forever! I want to get out of here, and not in some stupid three foot tall body that everyone treats like a child! I just want to do what I'm supposed to do! Why do you keep wasting your time with me when I'm just a mistake?" Cyrus sat and listened as Cryptor yelled and ranted at him. The inventor teared up as Cryptor shouted at him. There was an awkward silence after Cryptor finished yelling. Cyrus was speechless at first. He did not know what to say other than apologizing.

"Cryptor... I want you to be happy and free, but everything I do is wrong and messes everything up more and more." Cyrus said when he finally spoke. His tone was a sad, pitiful one. "Everything you have ever done is my fault; every rude comment, every accident, even when you tore Zane's face off. I tried to raise you right, but I failed you. I tried to reason with the protesters, but they began harassing my employees and I had to give in... You deserve better than what I can provide. I... I'm trying my best to come up with a plan to get your life back on track. Then you... you never have to be near me again." Cryptor glared at Cyrus, clenching his fists tightly, the light on his head flashing a couple of flickers before cutting out.

"Stop hating yourself over me!" He snapped at Cyrus. "Everything isn't your fault! It's mine idiot! You didn't make me rip Zane's face off, you didn't make me piss off the public, and you didn't make me decide to run off and want to destroy myself! You don't make me do anything! Everything I've done, I've done myself, not you! Stop making up all of these assumptions about me and stop blaming yourself!" Cryptor growled, huffing angrily at Cyrus before eventually whipping himself around, running back the direction he came and locking himself into his room. Cyrus watched Cryptor as he stormed off, tears finally falling from his tired eyes. As much as he wanted to follow, he felt that he had done enough damage. It was probably better to let him go. Drying his eyes on his sleeve, Cyrus shook his head slowly. Then he looked at P.I.X.A.L. She had witnessed the whole event.

"Cyrus, may I go speak with him?" P.I.X.A.L. asked, giving Cyrus a sympathetic look.

"You don't have to." Cyrus sighed, drying his eyes again. "I would hate to let you get tangled up in this mess of a situation."

"I do not mind." P.I.X.A.L. stated. "My primary directive is to assist you. Assisting you in dealing with your most troublesome creations is a part of what I do."

"Well... if you want to speak with him, then go ahead." Cyrus sighed, waving his hand. "I'll be... doing paperwork if you need me." With that, P.I.X.A.L. headed off to find Cryptor. Guessing that he was in his room, P.I.X.A.L. checked there first. She knocked on the door politely, awaiting an answer. Cryptor sat in his room, zoning out of everything. Hearing the knock at the door, Cryptor growled.

"Go away Cyrus!"

"I am not Cyrus." P.I.X.A.L. stated from behind the door. "May I have a word with you?" Cryptor frowned, listening to the voice on the other side of the door before shifting his way over to it. Then punching in the code, Cryptor cracked the door to glare at P.I.X.A.L.

"What do you want?"

"I just want to talk to you about Cyrus." P.I.X.A.L. stated, unfazed by Cryptor's glare. "I would like to show you something as well." Cryptor opened the door a little wider, leaning on the door frame as he crossed his arms, holding the trying-to-close door open with his foot.

"I'm listening." He grunted, still glaring at P.I.X.A.L.

"I think you are too short with Cyrus." P.I.X.A.L. said, looking up at Cryptor. Her brows furrowed as he continued to glare at her. "He has done wrong, yes, but he is trying his best to do what's right. Shutting you down was not something he wanted to do, but with the public, many of his own employees and executives against you he did not have much of a choice. As for being put up in the hall of failures, it is the fate of all presumed failures. You, unlike many others, were lucky enough to be given another chance." Cryptor frowned, listening to P.I.X.A.L. talk. As he spoke, his glare eventually dropped from his face and he looked down at the ground. She was right, unlike many other failures Cryptor had been given a second chance. Cyrus probably never thought he would turn him back on, thus getting placed in the room. P.I.X.A.L. sighed and motioned for Cryptor to follow her.

"Before you return to your room, I would like to show you something... hopefully it makes you feel a little better." She said, taking a few steps down the hall. She watched Cryptor with each step, hoping that Cryptor would follow. Watching P.I.X.A.L. move, Cryptor sighed, leaving the door frame and grudgingly following after her. When Cryptor followed, P.I.X.A.L. led him to the elevator and took him to a specific floor. P.I.X.A.L. led Cryptor to a room with a large door. Upon entering a code, the door opened. Inside the room were many inventions set on display. P.I.X.A.L. gave Cryptor a look and led him inside. As they passed many odd contraptions, P.I.X.A.L. scanned through the displays.

"I'm sure you have guessed that this is the hall of failures." P.I.X.A.L. said, looking back at Cryptor briefly. Cryptor looked at everything in the room with a mixture of curiosity and disappointment. He himself had never been in the room, when he was on that a specific set of creations, P.I.X.A.L. stopped and motioned at them. "These are a few of my old models... Many of my bodies have failed due to a faulty thermo coils and malfunctioning AIE-ES chips." Looking to what P.I.X.A.L. showed him, Cryptor frowned. He hadn't realized how many P.I.X.A.L.'s there were, although then again, he never cared about her in the first place. There was no interest in ever figuring out anything about P.I.X.A.L., seeing the bodies only made Cryptor realize how little he actually knew about her.

"Cyrus did not put my bodies here because I am a failure." P.I.X.A.L. added as she watched Cryptor examine her previous bodies. "He put them here to remind him of his mistakes and short comings as an inventor. So he can remember them and improve upon himself. That goes for every invention in here too." Cryptor continued to scan the bodies before finally looking back to P.I.X.A.L., then looking to himself.

"Obviously he doesn't learn from all of them." P.I.X.A.L. shook her head and looked around at some of the other failures.

"Yes, he has repeated some mistakes." She said. She smiled as she recalled a few inventions he had made, laughing a little at a few very odd ones. She had seen him create many duds before. Cyrus would always shrug it off when making an obvious mistake. "Do you still feel angry?" P.I.X.A.L. asked as she looked back at Cryptor.

"Angry?" Cryptor questioned, looking around the room. "Of course I'm still angry; he shoved me in this stupid room. And I understand you are trying to make me feel better by showing me these, but these are different. Sure they are you, but you aren't them. You aren't a failure, these are. He didn't put you in here, he put them. I'm not like you. I got put in here. And yes, I understand Cyrus didn't plan on ever turning me back on, and I understand how much powering me off hurt him, but knowing that he put me in here? That he saw me as that much of a failure? It's not like I'm a different robot, I am what got put in here."

"I understand. You have every right to be upset." P.I.X.A.L. said, nodding at Cryptor. "I just hope that you choose to prove Cyrus wrong instead of pouting in your room." Cryptor froze, thinking about what she said before smirking and crossing his arms.

"You're right. I will prove him wrong. I'm not a failure and the public will accept me." P.I.X.A.L. smiled and nodded at Cryptor.

"That's the spirit." She said, nudging Cryptor's arm. "Let's go then. I have work to do and I'm sure you have plans now as well." Without waiting for Cryptor, P.I.X.A.L. turned to leave. She headed towards the door, hand tracing the shelves and display cases as she passed. Cryptor following her out of the room, watching her hand trace the cases before he quickly came to a stop, walking closer to one of the display cases to look at what he remembered telling Cyrus very clearly not to make.

"Is that the Nuclear Toothbrush?"


	6. Chapter 6

For the past couple of weeks, prototypes had begun to mysteriously disappear from the testing room. Determined to find the missing prototypes, Cyrus had P.I.X.A.L. checked all the security footage. Unfortunately they were unable to find anything. The footage cut out just before the prototypes vanished.

On the fourth week after the prototypes began disappearing, Cyrus stormed into his tower with a huff. He wore a displeased look as he made his way to the testing room. The inventor entered the room abruptly.

"I know where my prototypes went!" He called for everyone to hear, sounding irritated. Going to a control panel by the door, Cyrus lowered the large television screen and turned it to a random news network. As the TV flicked to a news network, a woman appeared on screen already speaking with a pile of papers in her hands.

"-unknown hero. The few witnesses who saw him last night only could give vague descriptions, claiming it was too dark to see him clearly, but is confirmed to be clad in a dark cloak and scarf. Although his appearance can only be unclearly described for us, his abilities almost seem to be inhuman. He seems to be able to walk on the sides of walls and conduct electricity from his hand. Using his skilled combat techniques, this hero managed to save three people in the allies of New Ninjago City last night. He fearlessly jumped into the incidents, allowing the victims to escape unharmed as he fought off groups of seven and eight men, all armed. By the time police would arrive at the scenes, the hero would always be gone without a trace, leaving behind tangled up gang members and a civilian sharing the same story. Who is this heroic person, and where did he come from? Unfortunately that is all the information known of this nighttime hero…"

"Their powers fit the description of a few of the missing prototypes." Cyrus stated, shutting off the television. Then the inventor headed to Jackson and Cryptor's station. His employees watched him as he approached Cryptor and Jackson "This mystery hero is a thief with possibly unstable prototypes. This is not good. Not good at all!" Cryptor stared at the TV even after Cyrus had turned it off before turning back to a prototype he was working with.

"Obviously the guy knows what he doing." Cryptor said to Cyrus as he fiddled with a prototype. "At least he's using them for good and not evil."

"Yes, how they're using them is good and he's clearly some sort of Robin Hood or something, but some of those prototypes have not had much testing," Cyrus said, sounding worried. "If they're not careful, they may hurt themselves or others."

"Yeah, it would be pretty bad if anyone got hurt because of a faulty prototype." Jackson added, shaking his head. "So... how mad are you that he managed to get past your security system?"

"Pretty mad, but that has nothing to do with this." Cyrus grumbled. "He took something else too. Something that I've kept to myself that can cause problems if it gets into the wrong hands." Cryptor frowned, shifting a short glance at Cyrus before looking back at the prototype.

"What would that be?"

"It's... It's something I can't discuss here." Cyrus said, looking at all of the employees who were still gawking at him. Cyrus waved his hand at them as if to tell them to get back to work. That they did.

"Well, I don't think you have to worry about the hero using it wrong." Jackson sighed. "He seems to want to help people."

"I... I know, but what if something happens and someone else gets it." Cyrus said, sounding very worried. "I have to find this hero to get it back and to make sure the prototypes are stable." Cryptor frowned, testing the prototype he had for once.

"Cyrus, if he can steal from you, I doubt anyone can steal from him. If he has it it's probably not going anywhere any time soon. That and the magnetic boots and the taser gloves both seemed to be stable enough." Cyrus sighed and shook his head.

"Perhaps I am being too worrisome, but I still don't feel right about this." He replied. "I suppose I'll leave you two to your work." With that, Cyrus turned to leave. About halfway to the door, the inventor remembered something. He quickly turned back and said, "I almost forgot. Cryptor, when you're finished working, please come see me in my office. I have something very important to show you." Once again, Cyrus turned to leave. He had work of his own to do.

"Well, I wonder what he wants to show you." Jackson said, turning back to his work at last. "Maybe it has something to do with that hero. What do you think of them anyway?"

"He's okay I guess." Cryptor shrugged in answer of Jackson, fiddling with the prototype once again. He was more focused on the prototype itself than anything else, not even questioning what Cyrus wanted to show him.

"Saving so many people is pretty cool of them. They're pretty amazing." Jackson continued, recording some information on the clipboard. He smiled and quirked a brow. "I'm sure you're probably a little envious. I mean, isn't that what your job was supposed to be?" Cryptor snorted at Jackson, finally dropping the prototype he was messing with.

"At least someone is out there doing it while I can't."

"I suppose that's a good way to look at it." Jackson said with a nod. "So, notice any design flaws in that prototype you just dropped?" Cryptor glanced at the prototype before picking it up again.

"The switch doesn't like to move." He explained, making an example as he tried to switch it on. "Then once it's on this tends to flicker." Jackson quickly jotted that down on the form, filling the rest out quickly as well.

"Alright, what prototype do you want to test next, buddy." The employee asked with a quirked brow. Putting the prototype back down, Cryptor crossed his arms, looking at all of the prototypes to test. With a frown, he shifted a glance back at Jackson.

"You pick one out this time." Jackson shrugged and picked up a random prototype. It was one they had already tested before. After going back to be fixed up, prototypes often return to make sure no old bugs or new bugs were created. Testers would often test the same prototype two or three times depending on the quality of the product. The prototype he had picked was the gun Cryptor had once tested that jammed before.

"Shall I test it, or would you like to?" Jackson asked as he looked through his forms to find the proper one. Cryptor looked at the gun Jackson had picked up, recognizing it from before.

"If I remember right, you didn't ever use this. I believe it would be better if someone that used it before used it again." Cryptor said as he took the gun away from him.

"Alright then." Jackson said. The employee found the form and clipped it on top of the others. "Let's see if it still jams." Cryptor nodded, taking the gun and aiming it at a target. Firing it once, Cryptor looked at the gun with interest before firing it a couple more times. Dropping his hand, Cryptor inspected the gun closer.

"It fires a lot smoother and easier." Then lifting it up once more and firing it again, Cryptor dropped it and looked at Jackson. "No jamming either."

"Okay, so it seems to no longer have any bugs." Jackson said, recording the data. He checked a few boxes and signed his signature. "I guess it's off for final testing for this prototype."

"Uh... Yeah." Cryptor shrugged, handing the gun back to Jackson. "That it would be." Having the gun out of his hand, Cryptor quickly turned away from Jackson, going back to the table and scanning through the other prototypes for another one to test.

"You know, I'm kinda surprised that you're not more curious about what Cyrus is going to show you." Jackson stated as he set his clipboard on the table for his station. He picked up another untested prototype and examined it for a moment. It was a simple compact, multi-functional pocket tool. "I mean, he's not even gonna show me and I'm so curious." Cryptor shrugged.

"It's probably just something he made that he thinks I'm going to like." He answered, glancing over at Jackson and noticing what he picked up. "What's that one supposed to do?" He asked, trying to change the topic, more interested in the tool than the conversation they were having.

"Well, it's like this invention called a Swiss army knife. It was like a pocket knife with a bunch of other tools for basic survival. It was a great tool to have when camping." Jackson explained. He examined the tool and began unfolding the many functional tools. There was a lot packed into it. "It seems to have a lot more than the regular Swiss army knife. It has the knife, the quirk screw, the can opener, bottle opener, as well as these other things Cyrus has added. To be honest, I think we're running into that time of year where Cyrus doesn't seem to have many ideas." Cryptor looked at the compact object as Jackson fiddled with it. He was fully aware what a Swiss Army Knife was, he just never got the chance to see what one actually looked like.

"So I take it we just need to test all the added components in it, not the average features."

"Yeah, just a bit most likely. The added stuff is probably straight forward too. This testing is probably a bit more like... does it open correctly and does it break easy." Jackson stated. He checked out the new features, finding a small flashlight. He turned it on and nodded when it seemed to work. "Would you like to check out some of the new stuff too?" Cryptor continued to look at the prototype before quickly reaching for it and pulling it away from Jackson, freezing up shortly after he took it. His hand still out, Cryptor looked at his hand as he rotated it over, uncurling his fingers from around it to see the knife of the Swiss Army Knife had stabbed into his hand, cutting through the glove and artificial skin and going all the way through. Frowning, Cryptor grabbed the base with his other hand and pulled at it, the knife breaking off and staying in his hand. Grumbling, Cryptor threw the rest of the pocket knife onto the table, then grabbing the blade and pulling it out of his hand.

"It breaks easily." He grunted as he got the knife out, throwing it on the table with the rest of it. Jackson's eyes widened when he saw the knife in Cryptor's hand.

"I didn't think you would need to be reminded to be careful around sharp objects." He said as he took Cryptor's hand and examined it. "Did it mess anything up? Do you need repairs?" Cryptor frowned, pulling his hand away from Jackson, moving his fingers and wrist to make sure everything worked.

"I think I'm fine." He answered, looking at his hand. "I think it just missed everything." Then looking at Jackson, Cryptor noticed red dripping from his thumb, the light on his head immediately beginning to flash. "You're bleeding." He gasped, taking Jackson's hand and inspecting the bleeding slash. Jackson looked down at his hand and gasped at the sight of blood.

"How did that happen?" He questioned, looking away immediately. "Oh gosh, I hate seeing blood... I have to go get this patched up."

"Right." Cryptor nodded, letting go of Jackson's hand, looking back frantically at the employees around, being at a complete loss what to do himself. "You need to get it patched up..."

"Cryptor, I get to sick when I see blood. How deep is the cut?" Jackson asked. "I hope a bandage will do the job..." Cryptor looked back at Jackson urgently, looking at the wound.

"I don't think it's very deep." He answered him.

"Alright, I think I can handle it myself then." Jackson said, wrapping the fabric of his shirt around the bloody finger. He looked back at Cryptor and sighed. "You can keep working if you'd like. I'll be back soon enough." Then, without another word, Jackson headed off towards the door, leaving Cryptor behind. Cryptor watched Jackson walk off before frowning, quickly following after the injured employee.

"You sure you don't need any help?"

"I should be able to handle cleaning and dressing the room." Jackson answered, opening the testing room door. "You don't have to worry." Cryptor frowned, still following Jackson, looking at his hand. If he had been human, he would have definitely been worse, probably even hospitalized him.

"I should have been more careful taking it."

"Yeah... but I should have put the knife attachment away before you took it." Jackson muttered. He shook his head as he led Cryptor towards a room he knew had a first aid kit. "At least it's just a small cut." Cryptor nodded.

"At least it's small." He agreed. "Nothing like mine, that would not be pleasant if it was."

"Yeah, that would have been terrible... how did you manage that by the way?" Jackson asked as they arrived at the room he had been leading Cryptor to. It was like a second break room. The employee went over to some cupboards and looked through them for a small first aid kit. Then he opened the box.

"I grabbed it with the blade facing my palm." Cryptor answered watching Jackson search for the first aid kit. "And obviously it sliced your finger in the process as well."

"Yeah... wish we could have avoided this." Jackson said as he pulled out a disinfectant spray. He unwrapped his finger and sprayed it, wincing from the sting. The employee glanced at his cut and went pale. He was too squeamish to look at even a small cut. "Can you please bandage my thumb?" Cryptor frowned, looking at Jackson at a complete loss for what to do. Looking at the first aid kit, Cryptor pulled out what he knew was a band-aid, but held it in his hand, trying to figure out how to get it out of the wrapper.

"You realize I have no experience at all in medical care." He grumbled. "How do you even get it out of this stupid paper?"

"Pull the two tabs at one end apart." Jackson said. Glancing at the cut on his thumb again, Jackson shutter at the sight of blood. The employee looked ill.

"You know, this probably would have been quicker if you did it yourself." Cryptor said as he located the tabs on the one side, pulling them apart once he got a grasp on them. Finally getting the band-aid out of the paper, Cryptor frowned at it. Not bothering to peel the paper on the back of it, Cryptor handed it to Jackson. "You do the rest of it." He huffed with irritation. Jackson glanced at Cryptor, then the bloody thumb. He bit his lip as he took the adhesive strip from Cryptor. He removed the backs without watched, too afraid of his own cut to watch. Glancing quickly, Jackson located the cut and covered it with the band-aid. There was still some blood on his hand from the minor wound. He had to wash it off before he threw up. Grabbing a paper towel, Jackson quickly began cleaning the blood from his hand. Cryptor watched Jackson apply the bandage with concern, feeling a little bad that he hadn't helped him more. Cryptor's light on the back of his head had flashed for nearly the whole time, from the testing room to now.

"You okay?" He asked Jackson, taking notice of his behaviors.

"I'm fine." Jackson answered. He kept his eyes averted when throwing the paper towel away. "Blood just... Blood freaks me out." Cryptor's light almost immediately stopped, cracking a smirk and trying not to laugh at Jackson.

"Just a little blood?"

"Shut up." Jackson huffed, giving Cryptor a slight shove. "I get really sick when I look at it." Cryptor laughed at Jackson.

"You are scared of just a little blood?" Cryptor continued to tease.

"Yes, I am. Also, the sky is blue, and water is wet." Jackson huffed. He headed towards the door to go back to work. "Captain obvious." Cryptor snorted, following after Jackson.

"You act like you're so tough and the sight of blood and you almost pass out." He smirked. "Imagine if I had blood; that would be a lovely sight for you. Although, then again, if I had blood I would probably be dead by now." Jackson shuttered at the mental image. It took strength to keep himself from gagging. He could not stop himself from becoming teary eyed however.

"You're afraid of being shut off." He retorted through gritted teeth. "If I recall what I was told correctly, you ran off and hid when Cyrus needed to repair you." Cryptor flinched, looking away from Jackson.

"Did I do that?" He asked. Back when Ruth had wiped several of his memories, it was one of many that got lost forever. Frowning, he looked back at Jackson. "I don't remember that." Jackson frowned and shook his head.

"... Yeah... you did, but I shouldn't have brought it up." He answered, feeling bad suddenly. He could have spared Cryptor that whole ordeal if he had put his foot down and stopped Ruth. He was partially to blame. "I'm sorry I snapped at you... and I'm sorry about your memories." Cryptor huffed crossing his arms, knowing what Jackson was referring to.

"That happened a while ago. Whatever that person did it doesn't matter anymore and I don't really care." The employee nodded and look at the floor in front of them as they headed back to the testing room.

"I suppose that there's nothing we can do about it now." He sighed, glancing at his thumb briefly. He looked up at the door to the testing room when they arrived. "Back to work then?" The duo returned to work, testing prototypes from then until noon. By noon, Jackson departed for his lunch break and sent Cryptor off to do whatever. Having nothing to do, Cryptor decided to see what Cyrus had to show him. He had no doubt it was something he would not be interested in.

When Cryptor entered the office, Cyrus seemed to abruptly shove something under his desk. The inventor looked a bit startled by Cryptor's sudden entrance.

"Oh, you're a bit earlier than I thought you'd be." Cyrus said nervously. "Well... I should call P.I.X.A.L. up so I can show you both at once." Cryptor frowned, looking at Cyrus desk, obviously noticing that Cyrus had shoved something under it, but not seeing what it was.

"Why do you need P.I.X.A.L?" Cryptor questioned.

"I just want to show you both this very important... thing." Cyrus chuckled, reaching for his phone. He quickly dialed the front desk, listening to the phone ring. When P.I.X.A.L. answered, he told her to come up for some important business. Then he looked back at Cryptor awkwardly. "She'll be right up..." Cryptor stared at Cyrus, as he used the phone, becoming more intrigued with what Cyrus was hiding under his desk. With a frown, he glanced back at the elevator as it opened and P.I.X.A.L. got out before glancing back to Cyrus.

"Ah, there you are." Cyrus said, sitting up straighter. "What I have to show you is very important. I would like you both to meet your little bother. Come on out, little guy." With that, small footsteps were heard and a little android peeked out from the side of the desk and waved at the two taller android's. The body was the one that Cryptor had once used and rejected. Cyrus had programmed a new AI to keep from wasting a good body. Cryptor stared in shock at the small android at first, easily recognizing it, before his surprise quickly turned into a hateful glare. Shifting a look to Cyrus, Cryptor continued holding the expression.

"You put something in that thing?!" Cyrus looked up from the small android to see Cryptor's hateful look. The inventor frowned and gave a nod.

"Yes. If you aren't going to use the body, then this AI will." He answered, motioning at the android. As they spoke, the small android wandered over towards P.I.X.A.L. and looked up at her with a smile.

"No, Mindroid is a piece of garbage!" Cryptor spat at him, turning to watch the AI. "That body sucks and can't do anything! You realize the attention he's going to get right? What do you even expect him to do?"

"Cryptor, please watch your tone." Cyrus said as he steered himself out from behind his desk. When Cyrus came to a stop, the little android turned and scampered back over to him. Cyrus smiled at the small android and gave his head a little pat.

"I'm curious about his primary directive as well, Cyrus." P.I.X.A.L. said, looking down at the android. "He looks childish and cute. Does his directive match his appearance?"

"I suppose." Cyrus said. "This android... Mindroid will be aiding you with tours when children are about. He can help keep them entertained and hopefully keep them from wandering off and getting lost." Mindroid glanced back at P.I.X.A.L. and Cryptor and nodded as if he were proud of that directive. Then the small android looked up at Cyrus and held up his arms, wanting to sit on the inventor's lap. Cyrus smiled and leaned over his handlebars enough to pick the android up, setting him on his lap. The small android sat up straight and placed his hands on the center of the handlebars. "I suppose he will also be my companion." Cyrus added with a chuckle, watching as Mindroid kicked his feet slightly. Cryptor frowned as he watched Mindroid move about, glaring holes into the android. Watching the robot run to Cyrus like a moth to a flame, Cryptor growled, not making any more comments as he watched Cyrus pick him up and put him on his lap.

"I want you two to help me train his AI a bit more and keep him out of trouble." Cyrus stated. "Cryptor, I expect you to at least try to be patient with him. He's a new AI and he's got a lot to learn." Cryptor scowled at Cyrus, continuing to growl.

"He's a dumb AI who doesn't deserve to learn, much more operate." Cyrus frowned at Cryptor.

"You've hardly known him a minute, why do you hate him so much already?" Cyrus asked.

"Your reaction to Mindroid did seem to be a bit explosive." P.I.X.A.L. noted. "What has he done to earn your hate?" The android looked up at Cyrus, then at Cryptor. Mindroid frowned and slouched on Cyrus' lap. Then he made beeping noses that only P.I.X.A.L. and Cryptor could understand.

"Cryptor hates me?"

"Ugh. He talks even." Cryptor growled, looking at Mindroid in disgust and ignoring their questions. "How much can that stupid piece of garbage even think?"

"Cryptor, quit being rude to Mindroid. Your attitude is uncalled for." P.I.X.A.L. said, frowning at Cryptor. She was very disappointed with Cryptor's rude behavior. Mindroid had hardly even paid attention to Cryptor, yet Cryptor already seemed to hate the small android. Cyrus steered his chair over towards P.I.X.A.L., giving Cryptor a disappointed look.

"Once he gets like this, there is no reasoning with him." The inventor sighed. "It would be best to just take Mindroid to tour the tower and leave Cryptor to do what he wants." Cryptor continued to growl, glaring at the three of them before he whipped around, pressing the button for the elevator. Crossing his arms as he waited for a few moments, Cryptor continued to glare before the doors opened.

"Keep the stupid pipsqueak away from me." He hissed before getting in the elevator, leaving them all behind.


	7. Chapter 7

After Cryptor stormed off, P.I.X.A.L. and Cyrus showed Mindroid around the tower and introduced him to a few employees. The little android was quite popular among many employees. The android picked up on the fact that he was cute and childlike quite fast with how people talked about him. Mindroid did not really mind. Not like Cryptor would have.

Once the touring was done, Cyrus had to return home for the day. Sending P.I.X.A.L. to her quarters, the inventor headed up to Cryptor's room after picking up Mindroid's charger. Once at the door, Cyrus knocked.

"Cryptor, can I come in?" He asked. Cryptor frowned when he heard Cyrus voice, grudgingly making his way to the door to open it to see Cyrus. Almost immediately after opening the door though, Cryptor noticed Mindroid on Cyrus' lap and automatically slamming the door shut on him. Cyrus frowned when Cryptor closed the door in his face. "Cryptor, we really need to talk about this sudden loathing you feel for Mindroid." The inventor sighed, sounding irritated. "Please just open the door." Cryptor growled behind the door, refusing to let Cyrus in with the small android.

"It isn't sudden if it already existed!"

"You disliking being in his body should not land him on your blacklist." Cyrus replied. "He's done nothing wrong."

"He's annoying!" Cryptor spat back though the door. Mindroid tilted his head as he heard Cryptor's voice from behind the door.

"Annoying?... Sorry." He beeped, looking down at his lap. Cyrus gave the little android's head a pat and shook his head.

"I don't have anywhere for him to stay just yet. Can he just stay in your room for awhile?" Cyrus asked, too tired to keep fighting. "If only for the night?" Cryptor growled, yanking the door open just enough to stand in it, blocking off the way in.

"You are not putting that piece of trash in this room!" Cryptor snapped, glaring harshly at Cyrus. Cyrus sighed and shook his head.

"Cryptor, please." Cyrus begged. "He just needs to charge for the night. He won't bother you."

"I won't bother you." Mindroid beeped with a nod. Cryptor scowled at Mindroid.

"You being here is bothering me." He hissed. "Can't you just get away from me you little brat?"

"Cryptor, I'm too tired to deal with this." Cyrus groaned. "I'll re-enable your stealth mode if you just let him charge in here." Cryptor perked at the bribe, looking doubtfully at Cyrus. Sighing, Cryptor backed away from the door, opening it wider.

"One night." He grunted, glaring at Mindroid.

"Thank you." Cyrus sighed, entering the room. He set up Mindroid's charger far from Cryptor's as quickly as he could. "I'll find him somewhere else to stay tomorrow. I expect you to not bully him tonight." Then he began to lift Mindroid off of his lap. The android responded by standing on the chair between Cyrus' legs and turned to face Cyrus and pulling his hands from his sides. Quickly, Mindroid hugged Cyrus good bye. Cyrus returned the hug and gave Mindroid's back a pat.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Mindroid." Cyrus said, finally setting him down on the ground. The inventor showed Mindroid how to connect to his charger before turning to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow too, Cryptor." He added on his way out. Cryptor glared at Mindroid as Cyrus set his charger, suppressing a growl as he watched Mindroid reach up and hug Cyrus.

"Nice to know I'm second now." He grumbled after Cyrus had left, turning back to glare at Mindroid, crossing his arms. Mindroid looked up at Cryptor as he glared at him. The short android held his arms awkwardly in front of himself as the glare burned holes in him. He had no idea what to do now that he was with someone who disliked him.

"H-hi." He beeped. Cryptor growled, getting even more irritated when the small robot spoke.

"Brat." He snarled at the android. Mindroid frowned and looked down, understanding that Cryptor's tone was an angry one.

"Sorry...What did I do?" Mindroid beeped, figuring he had done something wrong.

"Tch." Cryptor tsked, turning away from Mindroid to slouch in his chair, only to return the burning glare to Mindroid. "How long has Cyrus had you on? This is your first day right?" Cryptor growled his question, not answering Mindroid's own. Mindroid nodded.

"Yes. Since Ten Twenty Two AM." He felt awkward being in the same room as Cryptor. He missed Cyrus. He was comfortable with him. "How long have you been operating?" Cryptor huffed, continuing to glare at Mindroid.

"That's complicated." Cryptor grunted his answer.

"Complicated?" Mindroid questioned, tilting his head. "How?" Cryptor growled, irritated with his questions.

"Incidents." He spat an answer, growing increasingly annoyed with the robot.

"Oh. Okay." Mindroid nodded. Again, the android looked down and away from Cryptor. He was not sure how to appease the older android. He did not want to be hated, but there was probably nothing he could do about that. "When does Cyrus return in the morning?" He asked cautiously. He did not want to continue bothering Cryptor. "Last question, sorry."

"When he gets back!" Cryptor snapped at the android causing a cloud of silence for a while as he glared at the droid. "I honestly don't get what Cyrus sees on you. That body is useless and abused, not only that but it's incapable of talking. How are you even supposed to do anything if no one can understand you? Are you even capable of leaving Cyrus? You've made it quite obvious that you want to be with him now, you're like a nat glued to a tree." Mindroid frowned at Cryptor, not knowing what to say. He wanted to argue that Cyrus was going to fix his speech processor, but he felt that would only make his dependence on Cyrus seem worse. Cryptor's loathing for him seemed to be focused on his body and speech. It was not his fault that he looked and functioned the way he did. Mindroid could not help any of these things.

"Cyrus likes me how I am." Mindroid murmured, looking down at the floor. "Everyone else does too. How am I bad if they like me?"

"Of course everyone does. You're just so cute everyone wants to hug you and love you." Cryptor sang in a sarcastic tone. "Why don't you go run in a field of flowers and make flower crowns like the little girl you should be?" Mindroid frowned, not quite getting what Cryptor was saying. Others had called him cute, but he did not know why that was a bad thing. He was clearly male and had no idea what flowers had to do with anything.

"I don't understand why cute is a bad thing." Mindroid murmured, leaning against the wall where his charger was. He looked at his feet awkwardly. Perhaps a subject change was in order. "What is your primary directive?" Cryptor flinched at Mindroid's question, glaring at the android with even more hatred. Shooting up out of the chair he sat in, Cryptor stormed over to the door.

"I don't have a primary directive anymore." He hissed as he slashed open the door, slamming it on his way out. After Cryptor left, Mindroid sighed and sat on the floor. He connected himself to his charger and hugged his knees. It looked like he would be spending his first night of life alone.

The next day Cyrus returned to the tower and went straight up to Cryptor's room. He expected to find Cryptor bullying Mindroid or something awful. Ready for the worst, the inventor knocked on the door.

Having wanted to stay as far away from Mindroid as long as possible, Cryptor stayed out of the room for practically the entire night, returning very early in the morning very sluggish and dangerously low on battery. When Cryptor came back, his condition alarmed Mindroid, but he just ignored the android immediately going to charge. As Cryptor charged he gave Mindroid a lazy glare not saying a word, even when Cyrus had knocked on the door not long after he returned. Mindroid disconnected himself from his charger and went to answer the door. He smiled when he saw Cyrus. Immediately the little android perked up.

"Cyrus!" He cheered.

"Hello there." Cyrus said to Mindroid, looking over at Cryptor instead of Mindroid. "Cryptor, did you connect yourself too late last night?" Cryptor frowned when Mindroid reacted to Cyrus, shifting a lazy glare at the door and looking away to the window as Cyrus questioned him.

"Yes." He mumbled an answer to the inventor.

"You need to take better care of yourself." Cyrus said, sounding worried. "You aren't feeling depressed again, are you?" Cryptor continued to frown, still looking out the window.

"No." He huffed, getting irritated with questions. Cyrus frowned and shook his head.

"Well... When you're done charging, I'll re-enable your stealth mode." Cyrus said. "My schedule is fairly clear today, so look for me when." Then the inventor looked down at Mindroid, smiling at him.

"As for you, I want you to go with P.I.X.A.L. today. She'll teach you a thing or two." He said, patting the android's head. "I'll escort you to her." Mindroid nodded.

"Okay." He beeped. He would rather be with Cyrus, but he didn't mind being with P.I.X.A.L.

Cryptor watched the two leave, staying in the room as he charged. It took him a few hours to catch up on his power levels, but once he was at an operational level Cryptor took off to go find Cyrus. Cyrus was found in his office, like usual. When Cryptor entered, Cyrus smiled at him and immediately steered his chair out from behind his desk. He headed towards Cryptor, stopping in front of him.

"How are you?" Cyrus asked, hoping Cryptor would be in a better mood. "Are you ready to be stealthy again?" Cryptor snorted at Cyrus' wording, crossing his arms.

"I don't get why you deactivated the setting in the first place."

"It was just a precaution." Cyrus shrugged. Then he motioned to the elevator. "Shall we head off to the lab then?" Cryptor nodded to Cyrus as they both took off for the elevator.

"I don't understand what bad could come out of allowing me to turn invisible..."

"Well, you could have wandered off or caused trouble after I first powered you on." Cyrus said, looking down at his lap as Cryptor hit the floor button. "I was afraid that you would try to get away from me before it was safe for you to leave the tower." Cryptor frowned.

"Good to know you trust me so much." He huffed, looking down at the ground.

"Cryptor, I thought you would hate me so much, you would run away." Cyrus said with a shake of his head. "I mean, I wouldn't have blamed you, but I can't have you running off into a world that isn't safe yet." The elevator arrived on their designated floor. The doors opened and Cyrus exited the elevator. Cryptor sighed as he followed Cyrus out of the elevator.

"Have you even thought of anything yet to get me out there?"

"To be honest with you, I haven't quite come up with a plan yet." Cyrus said, shaking his head. "I'm a bit stumped. The only idea I have seems to be lying to the public, but I don't want to do that. With that vigilante running around with possibly unstable prototypes, I've become a bit distracted as well." Cryptor huffed.

"Right, that nut job." He grunted. "You have any leads on them yet?"

"They have to be someone who works here." Cyrus said, pausing to open the door of the lab. He entered with Cryptor and motioned for his to sit on the table. "They had to have known the building well. I'm guessing it's one of the testers." Cryptor shrugged, getting up on the table.

"Whoever it is they aren't very smart."

"I both agree and disagree." Cyrus said as he grabbed the tools needed. He turned to Cryptor and set the tools on the table. "Using prototypes that could malfunction is not very wise, but they had to have been pretty smart or at least very prepared when stealing the prototypes."

"I guess so." Cryptor shrugged.

"Alright, it's time to lie down." Cyrus said, patting the table. "This will be very quick. No more than five minutes."

"Don't do anything else..." Cryptor sighed, okay with the time it should take.

"I promise." Cyrus said as Cryptor lied down on the table. Then he powered Cryptor off. As soon as Cryptor was off, Cyrus went to work. He kept from looking at Cryptor's face as he worked. It was still painful to see Cryptor powered off.

Like he had told Cryptor, the process was very fast. When he was finished, Cyrus powered Cryptor on again, waiting to see if it worked. Almost as soon as Cryptor was powered on and completely running, had he immediately vanished from sight to check if it worked. Only for a brief moment had he disappeared as he sat up to reappear still on the table and swung his legs over the side.

"Good, it works." Cyrus chuckled, patting Cryptor's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll be causing trouble with Jackson again... but keep it to a minimum." Cryptor snickered at the mention of Jackson.

"You know me too well." He said as he got off the table. "I'm not going to overuse it. As useful as the ability is, losing the ability to talk is annoying."

"That's good." Cyrus said with a smile. "Speaking of Jackson, I'm sure you want to go tease him before he heads out for lunch." Cryptor nodded.

"Yes, I do." He smirked before rather quickly going out of the room to go catch Jackson. Activating the setting in the elevator, Cryptor took off down the hall, skidding to a halt as he saw Jackson already leaving the testing room. The employee whistled a little tune as he walked down the hall and towards the nearest elevator. He had not seen Cryptor today, so he kept an eye out as he headed down the hall. Hopefully he would not go and test without him. Quietly, Cryptor went up to Jackson, beginning to follow him closely but not touching him yet. Grinning as Jackson hadn't seemed to notice him yet, Cryptor brought a hand up and jabbed Jackson in the back of the head.

"Ow, what the-" Jackson yelped at the sudden jabbing. He spun around partially and looked for the source. Seeing nothing, Jackson raised a brow suspiciously. The last time something like this had happened, a certain invisible jerk was behind it. Without warning, the employee reached out behind him and felt the air for a solid form. Cryptor had almost immediately started laughing a muted laugh when Jackson yelped, continuing to do so as Jackson's hand found him and Cryptor deactivated the ability.

"Cryptor, you jerk." Jackson chuckled, giving Cryptor a playful shove. "Are you up to your invisible pranking again?" Cryptor finally stopped laughing before shaking his head.

"No, I don't exactly want to get sprayed with a fire extinguisher again." He answered, crossing his arms. Pausing for a bit he smirked. "Although... There is someone I would like to play at least one prank on..."

"Really now?" Jack asked, brow quirked and a smirk on his face. "Wouldn't you care to join me for lunch and plot then?"

"More like watch you have lunch than join you." Cryptor responded to the employee.

"You know what I mean." Jackson laughed. He turned and waved for Cryptor to follow him. "We can talk about that prank in the break room just below this floor. Meanwhile, tell me about what Cyrus showed you yesterday."

"I believe that won't be too hard to explain, considering that the two are one." Cryptor answered Jackson. "He is after all who I want to prank."

"Oh, so Cyrus showed you a person yesterday?" Jackson inquired, looking back at Cryptor as he hit the button to bring the elevator to their floor. The elevator arrived rather fast. When the doors opened, a person stepped out and headed off on their way. Then Jackson and Cryptor boarded. "Who is this guy then and why do you want to prank him?"

"Mindroid." He answered. "Technically he's not a person, although he's an annoying brat and deserves it."

"Mindroid? You mean that body Cyrus put you in?" Jackson questioned as they were taken down to the floor below. The doors opened and Jackson led him off towards the break room on that floor. "Did he make a new AI?" Cryptor nodded.

"Apparently he doesn't have enough on his hands." He huffed. "He decided he didn't want to waste the body."

"Well then, what's Mindroid like?" He asked. "Why does he deserve to be pranked?"

"He's annoying and he didn't let me charge all night. He also sticks to Cyrus like he's glued to him. It's obnoxious. Can't he do anything besides demand to be on his lap?"

"How did he keep you from charging?" Jackson asked looking at Cryptor with a raised brow. He stopped at the door to the break room, putting his hand on the knob but not opening the door. "And what's wrong with him being on Cyrus' lap?"

"He wouldn't stop asking questions, I had to leave the room just to get him to shut up." Cryptor growled. "And there's nothing wrong with him sitting on Cyrus' lap, he's just...just...ugh."

"He's just... too close to Cyrus?" Jackson asked, smiling gently and tilting his head. "Does him being around Cyrus make you angry?"

"No!" Cryptor quickly objected, crossing his arms. "Of course not."

"Cryptor, it's quite obvious that you don't like Mindroid being near Cyrus." Jackson stated. "He's taking your Cyrus from you. You're totally jealous of the little bot."

"No!" Cryptor spat. "I am not 'jealous' of that imbecile!"

"Cryptor, you love Cyrus and you hate the idea of him having another android like you in his life." Jackson snickered.

"I don't love Cyrus." Cryptor hissed. "Who could possibly even like a moronic douche like him? He's an idiot that doesn't think things through. And there was already P.I.X.A.L., I am another android."

"Yes, but this new guy is small, cute, and is apparently stuck to Cyrus like glue" Jackson replied coolly. Cryptor could deny his jealous all day long, but it was futile. It was too obvious that he doesn't like seeing Mindroid so close to Cyrus. "You don't want to share your Cyrus." Jackson added with a smirk, finally opening the door and heading inside to get his lunch.

"My Cyrus?" Cryptor frowned. "I'm not- Cyrus isn't an object. I don't have a problem with Mindroid sitting on his lap. He's just, so childish. It's annoying."

"You can keep lying to yourself if you want." Jackson said, strolling over to the staff refrigerator. He retrieved his lunch from the fridge and brought it over to a table. Sitting down, Jackson motioned for Cryptor to take a seat. "Tell me about this prank. I'll decide if I want to participate or not." Cryptor huffed, very irritated.

"Probably just throw him in a dumpster or lock him in a closet."

"Hm. Not very creative... and kinda mean." Jackson shrugged. He dug through his lunch and pulled out an apple. Taking a bite, Jackson waved the hand that held the fruit. He swallowed and said, "Don't lock him in a closet. That's not a prank. That's just mean. Throwing him in the trash... That's an okay prank, but not a very good one... You know, it's probably not a good idea to be so mean to a new AI. I don't think that I can help you." Cryptor sighed.

"I figured as much." He grumbled.

"Maybe you should wait until he's more developed." Jackson stated before taking another bite of his apple. "He's practically a baby if he was just powered on yesterday." He added, mouth still full of apple. "I'm not sure how happy Cyrus would be about that either."

"I don't know if I would exactly consider him a baby." Cryptor grunted before sighing. "He's developing fast, a lot faster than I think I did..."

"Well, he is newer and he probably doesn't have as many issues as you did when you were still learning." Jackson sighed. "Cyrus told me a lot about how you had a few problems with people abusing you when you still weren't all that developed. Not to mention how you had to be shut off for so long after your first day. From what I heard, your first day wasn't even a full day." The employee retrieved a bottle of juice from his bag of lunch and took a sip. "Cyrus probably has more preprogrammed information in him too." Jackson added. "Artificial intelligence programs usually have basic questions and answers programmed into them. Like, if you ask a new AI what happens when a glass of milk tips over, if you programmed it with the answer it will know." Cryptor frowned at the information. Sure he remembered some incidents, but quite a few parts of it were deleted. Mindroid was a better android than him and he didn't exactly like that fact. Growling, Cryptor stood up and turned for the door.

"I'm going to go lock him in a closet." He growled exiting the room.

Cryptor vanished from sight almost immediately after exiting and searched the tower for a while for the small android. Eventually Cryptor found him on one of the levels closer to the ground, walking the halls with P.I.X.A.L. as she explained things to him. Grinning, Cryptor crept over to Mindroid hovering over him as he followed P.I.X.A.L., then tapping twice on the short robots shoulder. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Mindroid looked back. When he saw nothing, he was confused momentarily. Deciding to ignore it, Mindroid looked back at P.I.X.A.L. as she led him through the halls.

"You have to know where everything is and what everything does if you are going to assist me with tours." P.I.X.A.L. stated.

"I understand." He beeped. Waiting a few moments to make sure P.I.X.A.L. wasn't looking, Cryptor roughly shoved on Mindroid's head, pressing him down a bit as he ruffled his head. Alarmed by the rough shove, Mindroid yelped, though it was more like loud beeping. Mindroid had nearly been forced to his knees.

"P.I.X.A.L., something pushed me." He whined. P.I.X.A.L. stopped and looked back, frowning when she saw nothing.

"Mindroid, there is nothing there." Cryptor started laughing a laugh that would have been very loud if not for the fact he was muted. Backing away from Mindroid as he watched Mindroid try to convince P.I.X.A.L. something had touched him. Eventually P.I.X.A.L. began walking again and Cryptor continued to follow the two. Passing a trash can, Cryptor looked to P.I.X.A.L. to see of the coast was clear before he roughly pushed Mindroid, knocking him into the trash can. Upon hearing the crash, P.I.X.A.L. turned her head to look back at Mindroid. She immediately went to help the small android up.

"Did you trip?" She asked as she set Mindroid on his feet.

"No something- I... I was pushed." Mindroid beeped, looking around for what caused him to fall. "Really, something pushed me."

"Mindroid, there is nothing there." P.I.X.A.L. sighed. "Come on. We have a lot to see." Cryptor laughed at Mindroid, continuing to follow the two. Once again teasing the android, Cryptor grabbed the fabric on his back and picking him up off the ground a little for a second before dropping him back down. Once he fell back down, the small android rushed to P.I.X.A.L.'s side and clung to her. He did not say anything. He just held her hand, hoping the mysterious activity would cease. For a while, P.I.X.A.L. and Mindroid walked down the halls. P.I.X.A.L. told Mindroid what each room was for and were for. Turning down a new hallway, P.I.X.A.L. stopped and turned to Mindroid. She let go of his small hand and knelt down to speak with him.

"Mindroid, there is something I would like to do in an area only Cyrus and I are permitted to enter." P.I.X.A.L. said, looking down at Mindroid. "I need you to wait here for me."

"But- but the thing-"

"Mindroid, there is no thing." P.I.X.A.L. said, patting his head gently. Then she stood up and turned to head further down the hall. "I promise I will be quick." Mindroid watched P.I.X.A.L. walk away nervously, holding himself when she entered another room. He looked around cautiously as he waited. He knew something was up, but he did not know what. Grinning some more once P.I.X.A.L. left Mindroid alone, Cryptor glance around to find a cleaning supply closet nearby. Looking back to Mindroid, Cryptor poked at the android a few times before going over to the closet and opening it to look inside. Mindroid looked around for what tapped him, stopping what the door to a supply closet opened. The little android backed up a little as he looked around for what opened the door. Not knowing what to do, the little android backed away slowly, watching the door as he did. Smirking, Cryptor looked at Mindroid before walking over to him, reaching and grabbing Mindroid up but the back of the sash. Holding the android up to eye level, Cryptor quickly went back to the closet with the robot, quickly throwing something off a hook on the wall before folding Mindroid's sash and hooking him onto the wall. Laughing, Cryptor quickly closed the door, and backed away before he dashed back down the hall to get away from the scene of the crime, only becoming visible again once he reached the elevator.

Mindroid kick and swung his arms as he tried to get down from the hook. Getting down did not seem to be possible on his own. So Mindroid called out for help, only managing to make loud beeping sounds. When P.I.X.A.L. returned, she heard Mindroid's cries. Looking for the android, P.I.X.A.L. easily found him in the nearby supply closet. Alarmed to find him hung by his sash, P.I.X.A.L. helped Mindroid down.

"What happened?" P.I.X.A.L. asked as she set Mindroid down. "How did you get stuck up there?"

"The invisible thing picked me up and hung me in here." Mindroid beeped in distress as he looked around cautiously. Mindroid took P.I.X.A.L.'s hand and held it tight. "Please believe me."

"I believe you." P.I.X.A.L. said, patting the android's head with her other hand. "We should go find Cyrus." Taking Mindroid to look for Cyrus, they found him in his office. Explaining the situation to him, Cyrus sighed and shook his head in disappointment. Without a word, he told the two to wait until he returned. Excusing himself, Cyrus left to look for a certain android.

Cryptor had made his way back to the testing room and met up with Jackson again. Working on prototypes again, Jackson and Cryptor talked as they worked like usual, Jackson being quite disappointed in the androids actions. Cryptor on the other hand continued to laugh at what he did to the android, finding what he did hilarious until a not that happy Cyrus entered the room and found him. Cyrus immediately approached Cryptor and Jackson, shaking his head in disappointment. He stopped in front of the two, giving them both a suspicious look.

"So, what have you been up to, Cryptor?" Cyrus asked, sounding like he was accusing the android of something. "Using that stealth mode of yours?" Cryptor shifted awkwardly when Cyrus spoke.

"Not really." He answered Cyrus.

"Oh? So you haven't been bullying Mindroid?" Cyrus asked, crossing his arms and quirking a brow.

"No…" Cryptor denied. "I haven't seen him all day."

"Haven't seen him all day, hmm?" Cyrus questioned, shaking his head. "Then what was that invisible force that was pushing him around and locked him in a closet?" Cryptor flinched slightly, looking at Cyrus sheepishly.

"…A…ghost?"

"A ghost." Cyrus questioned flatly. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know it was you, just admit it." Cryptor huffed and crossed his arms, giving up easily on trying to convince Cyrus otherwise. "Cryptor, that was so mean." Cyrus said, sounding very disappointed. "Why would you do that to him?" Cryptor frowned and looked down at the ground, not wanting to answer the question. "Cryptor, you've never been as harsh with anyone like you are with Mindroid." Cyrus stated. "Especially right off the bat. I want you to tell me why."

"I know why." Jackson sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "It's because he's-" As soon as Jackson began to speak, Cryptor automatically knew what he was going to say. Quickly glaring at him, he kicked Jackson in the leg to cut him off.

"Ouch." Jackson grumbled, feeling where Cryptor had kicked him.

"No I'm not." He growled at the employee. Jackson gave the android a little shove.

"Don't kick me and yes you are."

"He's what?" Cyrus asked, sounding very irritated. He wanted to know why Cryptor was behaving like this. "Out with it."

"He's jealous." Jackson blurted.

"I'm not jealous of Mindroid!" Cryptor snapped at Jackson.

"Cryptor, you are so jealous. He's so close to Cyrus and you hate it so very much." Jackson snapped back, smirking at the android. He poked the android's chest before turning to the table with prototypes. "I've got work to do, so I'll just be getting back to it. Have fun talking to Cyrus, metal head."

"Cryptor, are you really jealous of him?" Cyrus asked, looking concerned. Cyrus felt like he should have seen it sooner. Cryptor growled at Jackson, turning to glare at Cyrus.

"I'm not jealous of anyone, especially him." Cyrus sighed, shaking his head again. He pushed his glasses back into place and looked back up at the android.

"Well, regardless of why you behave this way, I have to punish you for your actions." He stated. "I'm going to have to disable your stealth mode again." Cryptor tensed up at the words, shaking his head and taking a step back.

"But you just- No." He protested, soon turning invisible and making a dash for the door. Cyrus grumbled when Cryptor went invisible. Hating that he had to resort to it, Cyrus reached into his jacket. He pulled out the remote he had made. He did not want to do this, but Cryptor needed to be taught a lesson. Closing his eyes, he pressed the button. Hearing Cryptor's body crashing behind him, Cyrus looked at Jackson with furrowed brows.

"Please... take him to the lab for me." Cyrus asked, refusing to look back at Cryptor.


	8. Chapter 8

After Cryptor had been powered back on, he was not happy at all. For the most part he refused to talk to the inventor and in general avoided him. Unhappy as Cryptor was, it irritated him even more when Cyrus had decided that Mindroid should room with him permanently so they could learn to get along better, he had even disabled the door lock after Cryptor had locked the droid out of the room a few times.

The days passed pretty uneventful. Mindroid continued to learn from P.I.X.A.L., Cryptor kept on bullying Mindroid and working with Jackson and Cyrus kept working on trying to catch the night time renegade. Cyrus had continued to have no leads with the hero the public had begun to call Gadgetman after they learned of the prototypes he had been stealing from Borg Industries.

Unhappy with Gadgetman, Cyrus had been forced to temporarily bring his investigation to a halt as he had to leave for an important business trip. Cyrus had left instructing P.I.X.A.L. to keep Cryptor from bullying Mindroid as much as possible. Fortunately for Mindroid, Cryptor didn't do much to him when Cyrus left although he was still snappy with the droid and had a very short temper with him.

A couple of days had passed since Cyrus had left and Cryptor was left with a very boring day ahead of him. Jackson had the day off and Mindroid was off learning from P.I.X.A.L. Trapping himself in his now shared room Cryptor practiced spinning a pen on his hand as he had the news running on the television. As the TV spoke of Gadgetman, Cryptor had stopped working with the pen to focus on it. With as much as Jackson spoke of the hero, Cryptor wanted to be as up to date as possible. As Cryptor spun his pen, Mindroid entered the room. The short android went unnoticed as Cryptor's attention was on the television. Mindroid's attention turned to the newscast as well. Upon hearing the vigilante's name, Mindroid became curious. He had heard Cyrus talking about Gadgetman many times before, but he did not know what he had done to earn Cyrus' loathing.

"What did Gadgetman do to Cyrus?" The little android asked. Cryptor jumped when he heard Mindroid speak. Turning slightly to look at him, Cryptor turned back to the TV and set down the pen he was holding.

"He's been stealing prototypes." Cryptor answered the small robot.

"Oh." Mindroid responded, looking at the screen again. He still had many questions about the mysterious masked hero. He knew that Cryptor did not like him asking too many questions. But one more would not be bad, right? "Is he a bad guy because he stole prototypes or a good guy because he is doing good?" Mindroid asked. He knew that Cyrus was angry at Gadgetman, but he still was not sure. Cryptor frowned as he stared at the TV, picking back up the pen and tapping it on the desk.

"I'm not sure, he could be seen both ways." He replied. "Cyrus although he doesn't like that he's stealing prototypes is supportive in what he does. If he hadn't stolen them, Cyrus would probably like him better. I look at him as he is doing good. I get that it's not good that he's stealing, but he uses them for good and it's not like it's a big deal. The prototypes can easily be replaced and what he's taken haven't seemed to have any issues. They're pretty stable prototypes." Mindroid nodded slowly. He did not quite understand, but decided to shrug it off. He only really needed to understand why Cyrus was angry with the masked renegade.

"I just don't get it," Mindroid sighed, "stealing prototypes is bad but saving people is good? Do kind acts really outweigh bad ones?" Cryptor grumbled, Mindroid's questions beginning to annoy him.

"I don't know." He huffed, turning to glare at the small android. "Why are you even in here? Shouldn't you be with P.I.X.A.L.?" Mindroid frowned at Cryptor's response to his rhetorical question. Crossing his arms, Mindroid looked back at the television.

"We're taking a break from my lessons." He answered. Cryptor frowned, glaring at Mindroid a little harsher before looking back to the TV.

"Don't you have anything else to do?"

"No, not really." Mindroid answered flatly. The little android gave Cryptor a quick glare before turning back to the door. "Since I'm bothering you, I'll leave before you decide to hang me in a closet." He added as he made his way out of the room. Then Mindroid set out to search for P.I.X.A.L., figuring her company would be better than Cryptor's. It did not take long to locate the female android. She was signing some forms on the floor he was already on. Mindroid joined her, watching her sign papers quietly.

"Hello, P.I.X.A.L." He greeted when she finished. P.I.X.A.L. glanced at Mindroid before shuffling the papers she was working on into a neat stack.

"Hello Mindroid." She greeted back. "You're back sooner than I expected."

"Yeah." Mindroid shrugged. "I went to my room, but Cryptor was snappy at me again. Why is he so mean anyway?" P.I.X.A.L. sighed.

"I don't know why he's meaner with you than anyone else. He's not particularly happy with Cyrus since he got powered back on, but he has reason to be. As far as I am aware you haven't done anything to him."

"Do you think his anger towards Cyrus is being projected onto me maybe?" Mindroid questioned, tilting his head. "Or maybe it's my relationship with Cyrus he dislikes... who knows..."

"I am unsure what his reasoning is, and he's not one to ever come out with it." P.I.X.A.L. stated.

"Uh, anyway, should we continue where we left off?" Mindroid asked, changing the topic.

"If you wish to continue, we can." She said turning to go down the hall towards the elevator. "We'll begin on the fourteenth floor in the third sector."

"Alright." Mindroid agreed, following after P.I.X.A.L. "What's in that sector? Will we be showing people there on tours?"

"There are a few essential components in that area that you need to be aware of." She replied, turning her head to look at Mindroid. Reaching the elevator she pressed the button to call the elevator. "It's important you know every part of the job you're going to be taking on in the future." Mindroid nodded as he and P.I.X.A.L. boarded the elevator. After a short ride down, they arrived on the fourteenth floor. When the doors opened, Mindroid motioned for P.I.X.A.L. to take the lead.

"After you." Mindroid said with a smile. P.I.X.A.L. smiled at Mindroid.

"Thank you Mindroid." She praised the polite behavior, exiting the elevator to lead the way down the hall. Leading the other droid to a door, P.I.X.A.L. opened it and entered the room. Explaining a few things within it for Mindroid, P.I.X.A.L. then continued on to the next area. Mindroid listened as P.I.X.A.L. continued explaining key information. As they toured the hallways of the floor and entered the many rooms, Mindroid zoned off as he pondered about Cryptor. He had done nothing to earn such hate from the older android.

It was ridiculous how quickly Cryptor began to loath him. The bullying was quite annoying too, though Mindroid noticed that his harsh behavior had been toned down since Cyrus left. The little android shook his head and realized that he had zoned out through a lot of P.I.X.A.L.'s teaching.

"I'm so sorry." Mindroid apologized as he came to a stop. He crossed his arms and looked at his feet awkwardly. "I was not paying attention. My mind was elsewhere... I was thinking about Cryptor and why he's such a jerk." P.I.X.A.L. stopped walking in the hall as well when Mindroid mentioned Cryptor again. A little disappointed that he hadn't been paying attention, she turned around and crouched down in front of him to make eye contact.

"Mindroid, even if other people can't understand you, I need you to promise me you will never speak his name unless you are with him or are positive no one can hear you. He isn't something that can be spoken of freely, and in event that someone figured out how to translate you, the word can't be let out. I apologize he is as mean as he is with you, but he's been through a lot, things I hope you never have to." Mindroid nodded slowly, a little surprised by what P.I.X.A.L. told him. Now he was curious about Cryptor's past, though he knew not to ask about it now.

"I'm sorry... I'll remember that." He said, feeling disappointed with himself. "I will not mention him and I will try to focus." P.I.X.A.L. nodded.

"Thank you." She said as she stood back up. "Now then, what was the last thing you remember me telling you?" She asked beginning to head back down the hall in the direction they came.

"I believe I last remember you explaining the importance of the advertisement and product placement section of the company." Mindroid stated. "I don't see why such a subject would be important for my primary directive, but I suppose I should know just about everything involving the company."

"If you are to assist me in tours, you need to be educated in many of the same areas." She answered as she headed back. "Whether or not the information will ever be of use to you, you need to be well informed of all the content spoken of within the tours." Mindroid gave a nod as he looked around at the rooms as they passed them by.

"I suppose you're right." Mindroid sighed. "You may continue then. I will pay attention this time, I promise." P.I.X.A.L. re-led Mindroid through the sections he zoned out of, moving on and completing the floor. After they finished the floor the two had decided to call it a day and the two went their separate ways. Mindroid made his way back to their room. He hoped that Cryptor would not be there. Unfortunately, the larger android was in the room. When Mindroid entered the room, he caught sight of Cryptor fiddling with something.

"What are you doing?" He asked, trying to peek over at what Cryptor had. Cryptor jumped, surprised by the androids entrance. Frantically he collected the small pile of stuff he was fiddling with and sloppily hid it from the other robot.

"It's none of your business." He hissed at Mindroid, obviously not wanting the droid to see whatever it was. Mindroid sighed and shook his head.

"Alright, I'm sorry I intruded." Mindroid grumbled, still trying to sneak a peek. Cryptor frowned, glaring at Mindroid before glancing around for some place to hide whatever it was a little better.

"At least knock or something next time..." He grumbled, standing up and carrying the object to another spot, stashing it away well out of sight of Mindroid.

"Noted." Mindroid stated, crossing his arms as Cryptor hid the object from him. Then he shook his head and turned towards his chair. Walking the short distance over to it, Mindroid sat in said chair and connected his charger. As he began to daze and become tired, Mindroid glanced back at Cryptor. He thought about what P.I.X.A.L. had told him.

"I have an early day with P.I.X.A.L. tomorrow." He stated, sounding drowsy. "We're going to be looking around the below floors and the higher assembly rooms... I-if you want, you could join us." Cryptor flinched at Mindroid's offer turning to throw an incinerating glare at him.

"No." He snapped at Mindroid, hating the reminder of the off limits areas. Mindroid frowned at Cryptor response. He crossed his arms looked at the wall across from him.

"Fine." Mindroid murmured sleepily. "You have fun sulking around tomorrow then..."

"I'm not sulking around!" Cryptor spat at him. "I have, things to do and I don't need to be wasting my time in stupid areas of the tower with brats like you."

"You test prototypes and sit in our room." Mindroid stated flatly. The little android did not bother to look at Cryptor. "What else do you possibly have to do other than treat me like a punching bag?" Cryptor was now fuming with rage.

"Shut up!" He snapped, storming up to Mindroid, ripping him from his charger and chucking him across the room. Stomping back over to him, Cryptor grabbed him by his sash and picked him up, slamming him against the wall with his arm. "If I was still able to, I would have chopped your little head off and blasted a hole in your pathetic little chest! I would throw you in the metal compressor where you belong you damn brat!" Mindroid was caught off guard by the sudden attack. He did not have much time to process what was going on before he was slammed against the wall. Looking at Cryptor with fearful eyes, Mindroid tried to pry himself free from Cryptor's grip. His short legs kicked in a futile effort to get down.

"Put me down." Mindroid pleaded, fearing what else Cryptor would do to him. "Put me down now." Cryptor growled, pressing Mindroid against the wall even harder.

"Why? You can't defend yourself?" He hissed, grabbing Mindroid's arm with his other hand. "You're weak and useless, pathetic." He sneered as he slowly lifted Mindroid's arm up. "You're just a copy. That body? A copy. Your directive? A copy. You're nothing. You aren't needed. You're just an annoying waste of space. A clueless, moronic, waste of space." He continued to snarl before hearing a cracking noise from Mindroid's arm. As Cryptor pulled his arm harder and harder, Mindroid tried to pull his arm away frantically. The small android panicked as Cryptor's pulling began to hurt. Turning to look at it, Cryptor then tugged at it, ripping the arm off of the small android. The small android gasped as his arm was ripped off. "Oh. Whoops." Cryptor said as he looked at the disembodied arm in his hand, then showing it to Mindroid. "You didn't need this did you?" He shrugged before dropping the arm to the ground, releasing Mindroid. "Whatever. It's just an arm. Could be worse." When Mindroid was dropped, he coward as Cryptor stood over him. Glancing between Cryptor and his arm on the floor. He reached over and grabbed his arm with his only remaining one, clutching it tight.

"You're a monster." Mindroid murmured as he scrapped himself up off the ground, watching Cryptor cautiously. Then the android bolted for the door. He left the room in a hurry, not stopping until he reached the door to P.I.X.A.L.'s quarters.


	9. Chapter 9

After the incident with Mindroid, P.I.X.A.L. called Cyrus and informed him of what happened. Outraged by the news, Cyrus headed back that night. Early the next morning, Cyrus returned to the tower. Ignoring all of the employees he passed by, Cyrus headed up to the ninety ninth floor. Once there, he headed to Cryptor's room. He entered without knocking, immediately reaching into his jacket pocket. Before Cryptor could speak, Cyrus powered him off with the remote. Then, with the help of a few employees, Cryptor was taken down to the lab. In the lab, Cyrus had Cryptor's AI transferred into the computer. Once that was done, Cyrus began typing up a special program into Cryptor's AI. Cryptor was shocked when Cyrus entered the room, knowing he shouldn't be back for several more days. He got ready to speak to the inventor before he found himself within the digital realm of a computer. Immediately freaking out about being placed within a computer, Cryptor popped up a box on the screen to talk to Cyrus.

- Cyrus?

- What are you doing?

- Why are you back early?

- What's going on?

- Cyrus?

- Cyrus!

- Get me out of here!

- Don't mess with my code!

- Stop!

- Cyrus?!

- Stop ignoring me!

- Don't look at my code!

- Stop it!

Cyrus did not reply to Cryptor as he shouted through the text box. He continued to code for about half an hour, Cryptor shouting all the while. When he finished, he transferred Cryptor back into his body. Then Cryptor was powered on again. As soon as Cryptor was powered on he shot up and searched for Cyrus. Glaring harshly at him, Cryptor got off the table.

"What did you do?" Cyrus just shook his head when Cryptor asked him what he did. The inventor did not answer. He headed towards the door, leaving Cryptor in the lab as he headed down the hall. When Cyrus ignored him, Cryptor growled, hurrying after him. "Cyrus? Why do you keep ignoring me? What did you do to me?" He spat, getting very irritated with him. Cyrus continued to ignore Cryptor, heading down the hall and to the elevator. The inventor hit the button and waited for the doors to open. When they did, he boarded the elevator in silence. Getting increasingly irritated with Cyrus, Cryptor continued to follow him not caring where Cyrus went, continuing to shout more questions at him. Despite Cryptor's shouting and blatant irritation, Cyrus continued to ignore the android. The elevator stopped on the ninety ninth floor and Cyrus headed back towards Cryptor's room with Cryptor following behind him. Finally deciding that Cyrus would not answer him, Cryptor stopped talking, continuing to follow him as he harshly glared at the inventor.

Before they reached the room, Mindroid rounded a corner just past the door. Upon seeing Cryptor, Mindroid backed away. The small android looked at Cyrus with fearful eyes. Cryptor's attention snapped to Mindroid as soon as he rounded the corner, his harsh glare directed at him now. He still wasn't happy with the droid at all from the previous night. Taking a couple of steps to push the robot around a bit, Cryptor stopped in his footsteps, frowning as he looked down at himself before glaring back at Cyrus. He was completely unable to advance any further on the other android. His body would lock up preventing him from pushing the small android around. Cyrus smirked when Cryptor stopped in his tracks. He motioned for Mindroid to come over to him. Cautiously, the little android approached Cyrus, making sure to stay out of Cryptor's reach. Cyrus gave Mindroid's head a pat and gave Cryptor a crooked grin.

"You won't be hurting Mindroid ever again." Cyrus stated proudly. "In fact, you'll be quite compelled to keep him safe hence forth..." Cryptor glared at the two, from Cyrus to Mindroid and back to Cyrus. Finally shifting on his feet and crossing his arms, Cryptor growled.

"Jerk." He grunted before swiftly turning around to lock himself within the shared room again. Cyrus gave Mindroid's head a pat before leaving to do his work. Mindroid smirked behind his mask before following after Cryptor. When he caught up, the little android laughed.

"You won't be bullying me anymore." Mindroid teased. "Serves you right, jerk." Cryptor shifted a glare at Mindroid when he spoke to him.

"I'm sure you love it." He hissed, irritated with the android.

"Oh, yes I do." Mindroid said proudly. "You won't be dismembering me anymore, which is definitely a win... though I think you deserve a worse punishment." Cryptor huffed.

"Believe me, I've done worse than rip off your arm and I regret every moment of it." Mindroid paused at Cryptor's comment. He tilted his head and continued to follow Cryptor.

"What do you mean?" The little android asked. Cryptor smirked at Mindroid.

"It doesn't matter. I doubt your pathetic little mind could even understand."

"Hey, I understand plenty!" Mindroid huffed. "I understand that you're mean with a short temper. Did you harm someone else? Is that why you can't be mentioned in many areas of the tower?" Cryptor reached the room, freezing when Mindroid spoke with his hand on the door knob. Staying silent for a few moments, Cryptor finally turned the knob to open the door.

"No." He answered entering the room and closing the door on Mindroid's face.


	10. Chapter 10

Since Cryptor's reprogramming, the android had been grounded to his room for two months. No time with Jackson, no prototype testing, and no leaving the room unless he was told to leave. It was two weeks into the grounding and Cryptor was not happy at all. During those two weeks, Cyrus kept to himself. He continued his investigation, trying to figure out the identity of Gadgetman. He stayed up late every night those two weeks, just watching newscasts and going over any information they had on the vigilante.

His late night stays at the office had begun to take their toll on the inventor. He had dark circles around his eyes and was easily irritated from his lack of sleep. Mindroid, a common visitor to his office, had begun to worry about him. He was worried enough to report Cyrus' condition to Cryptor one day, asking the other android what he should do. When Cryptor had heard of Cyrus' condition from Mindroid, he stormed out if the room, not caring about being grounded. Stomping down the hall with a flashing light, he went to the nearest elevator and stormed into Cyrus' office.

"What do you think you're doing?!" He spat as he immediately saw Cyrus' condition. Cyrus looked up from his work and at Cryptor when the android entered. He sighed and tapped his pen on his desk.

"I'm running an investigation." He answered, sounding pretty tired. "You should not be out of your room."

"I don't care if you are running an investigation or if I should not be out of my room, you shouldn't be at work!" Cryptor snapped at him, storming over to his desk and snatching the pen he had away from him. "You're going to make yourself sick if you don't go home and get some rest!"

"Cryptor, I'm not pulling all nighters." Cyrus stated, reaching for his pen. "I go home and I get two or three hours of sleep."

"Two or Three hours of sleep isn't enough!" He spat back at the inventor, chucking the pen far across the room. "You need more than that." Cyrus sighed and looked up at Cryptor with a slightly irritated expression.

"Cryptor, I can take care of myself." Cyrus stated, trying not to sound angry. "I don't need you yelling at me to sleep whenever I have to stay late."

"No you can't. You have made that quite obvious to me. It's great that you're at least getting some sleep, but you need more than that! Staying up late for one night is okay, but three? Four? Five? How long have you even been doing this to yourself?" Cyrus opened his mouth to retort, stopping himself when he realized he did not know how many days it had been. The inventor thought back briefly and counted the days.

"Almost three weeks I think." He answered once he figured it out. "Didn't rest at all when I was gone..." Cryptor growled at the answer before he started shoving at Cyrus' chair to get him to move.

"You need to go home now."

"Alright... I'll go home early." Cyrus huffed, giving up. "But I can't just leave in the middle of the day. I'll stay and work for a few more hours then I'll go home." Cryptor huffed, grudgingly excepting the answer.

"You better, and a few more hours better not be two in the morning."

"A few more hours means I leave at six." Cyrus grumbled. "Are you going to return to you room now, or are you going watch me all day and make sure I leave?" Cryptor huffed again, crossing his arms.

"How much do you have on Gadgetman anyway?" He asked. Cyrus shook his head and tapped his fingers on the desk.

"I know that he only strikes at night and that he has my lost prototypes." Cyrus answered. "No one really knows what he looks like or how he stole them from the tower. That's all I really know about him."

"Well that's not much to go off of." Cryptor snorted. He then sighed bring a hand up to his face and shaking his head. "Is there any way at all I can help you catch him so you don't keep staying up so late?"

"Well, you can start by telling me if you noticed anyone in the prototype testing room was acting suspicious." Cyrus said, turning to a special stack of papers. "Specifically Jackson. Have you noticed anything strange about his behavior?"

"No not really, he just talks about him a lot. Seems to be a big fan and always seems to know more than anyone else. I try to stay as up to date on the news as him but he always catches more than I do." He answered Cyrus. Cyrus nodded slowly as he listened to Cryptor answer. He picked up a spare pen and jotted down what Cryptor had said on a specific set of notes.

"Don't tell Jackson, but he's a suspect." Cyrus said as he set the papers in front of Cryptor. "The missing prototypes have all been tested by him. Of course there is a chance it could be another tester, but it seems like he's the most suspicious."

"If it is another tester I can't really look saying I'm not allowed in the room right now." Cryptor huffed, looking at Cyrus' papers. Cyrus sighed and looked back down at his papers. He pushed a few sheets away as he searched for a specific page. It was found at the bottom of a stack. Pulling it out, he handed it to Cryptor.

"These are the names of everyone who works in that room." He stated. "They are all suspects. You and Jackson are at the top of the list though, seeing how you both worked with these missing prototypes."

"How am I a suspect?" Cryptor quickly objected, sounding offended. "I'm not even allowed to leave the tower and if I was I'm pretty sure you would know."

"Cryptor, don't take offense." Cyrus said, spinning the pen in his hand. "You are a suspect because you also tested the prototypes. Not to mention you are the hero type. If you were Gadgetman, I'm sure you would have some way out of the tower without me knowing." Cryptor glared at Cyrus, crossing arms.

"I'm not Gadgetman. I don't even like the idiot and his stupid fan base. All the fans are being complete morons completely neglecting the fact he's stole things. Even if that imbecile is doing good, he's doing just about as much bad."

"Don't worry, Cryptor... Jackson is more suspicious than you are." Cyrus stated with a shake of his head. "His fans are just as rabid as the Ninjas'…"

"They all fawn over how hot he is and they don't even know what he looks like." Cryptor snorted. Cyrus chuckled and shook his head.

"I suppose people always find hero's attractive." He said. "But who's to say that Gadgetman is even a man. We've never seen them. Maybe Gadgetman is actually Gadgetwoman." Cryptor laughed.

"I doubt a woman is capable of what he does."

"Cryptor, women are capable of anything men are capable of." Cyrus said, giving Cryptor a bit of a disappointed look. Cryptor suppressed another laugh.

"No, they aren't."

"Wow, I never realized how terrible you are." Cyrus retorted. He was appalled by Cryptor's words. He had not raised Cryptor to be so sexist. "We'll have to have a long discussion about why sexism is bad later. Let's get back to the matter at hand." Cryptor huffed, slightly irritated, before looking back to the list of suspects. After receiving no comment from Cryptor, Cyrus began looked through his notes again. As the inventor looked through the papers, a yawn escaped. "I don't think I could manage another late night." Cyrus admitted to himself, sounding more tired than before.

"You aren't going to pull an all nighter, even if it requires me to reveal myself to the public and carry you home." Cryptor replied, glancing at Cyrus. Cyrus looked up at Cryptor as if he had been startled awake.

"Don't worry, I won't let that happen." He said. "I'm done pulling all nighters and I won't be staying late unless I absolutely have to."

"Good." Cryptor grunted, turning away from Cyrus and heading for the elevator. "I'll be checking up on you later to make sure you do."

Like he promised, Cyrus left work early. Cryptor had badgered him to leave at exactly six, so he had no other choice. The inventor headed straight home and stayed there for a half an hour before deciding to go out. He had some quick errands to run. If he had not returned home early, he would have completely forgotten about them. By the time the inventor was done, night had fallen and the street lights were lit. Halfway home, Cyrus stopped on the sidewalk to shake his arms out. He had taken his wheelchair out to run the errands, so his arms got tired from wheeling himself around so much. He relied too much on his mech-chair. While he stretched his arms, Cyrus was grabbed and pulled into a nearby alleyway. With a hand clasped tightly around his mouth, his screams were muffled. Once in the dark alley, Cyrus was ripped from his chair and dropped to the ground. Before he could call for help, a swift kick to the stomach silenced him.

Cyrus was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and a tight fist met his face. Blood ran from the paraplegic's nose. Another punch to the face knocked his glasses off. The attacker then commanded Cyrus to give him all of his money. With shaking hands, Cyrus reached for his pocket. Cyrus did not move fast enough, so the aggressor punched him again and again. Then Cyrus quickly pulled his wallet out. The mugger took the wallet and dropped Cyrus, kicking him across the face before bolting down the alley.

Then man that fled down the alley skidded to a halt just before making it out, the sound of metal clanging on the concrete. The hooded figure that leapt from the building, quickly knocked the attacker off his feet with a swing of the leg and knocked him to the ground. Quickly having the mugger pinned to the ground, Gadgetman stripped the wallet from their grasp before knocking them unconscious. Tying up the offender to a dumpster in the ally, the cloaked hero walked over to the unconscious Cyrus on the ground. Making a quick analysis of his condition, the shaded figure slipped the wallet back in his pocket picked up the limp body bridal style. Quickly making his way to the rooftops, Gadgetman took off, hopping across buildings in the direction of the hospital. As the mysterious renegade jumped from roof to roof, Cyrus began to wake. He stirred and his eyes fluttered opened. The inventor looked up at the sky, then the man holding him. His vision was blurry, but he could make out a pair of tinted goggles, a red scarf, and a hood. When Cyrus realized what was going on and where he was, he began to panic. Seeing that they were jumping from roof top to roof top, Cyrus clung to his savior.

"Oh my god!" Cyrus gasped, holding the masked vigilante tight. "Don't drop me. Be careful. P-please." Gadgetman looked down at him for a quick moment before looking back up. As the injured inventor pleaded for them to keep him safe, the masked savior only responded with a small shake of the head. Continuing to run towards the hospital, Gadgetman made his way to the ground and began to quickly weave between the small amounts of pedestrians on the sidewalk getting in front of the hospital, the cloaked hero set Cyrus down on the ground carefully before dashing off back to building tops again without a word. Immediately after being left in front of the hospital, people flocked around the injured inventor. He was bombarded with questions about the hero. No one needed to be told that the masked man was Gadgetman. Speechless, Cyrus just watched where the hero had run off. He could have unmasked Gadgetman, but he had not thought about it at the time. Eventually Cyrus received the help he needed. He was lucky and had only a broken nose and a swollen face. He was able to return to work the next day.

Cryptor had heard quickly what had happened to Cyrus during the night and quickly rushed to his office, hoping he'd be there. Unfortunately he wasn't and Cryptor had paced his office while his light flashed. News had spread of Cyrus' encounter and he was crowded by employees at the entrance when he arrived. Many questions were asked as Cyrus made his way inside and to the elevator. Cyrus answered what he could before being taken up to his office where he found Cryptor waiting. Finally hearing the elevator reach the floor, Cryptor whipped his head to look at it, seeing Cyrus get out of it.

"Cyrus!" He exclaimed quickly rushing over to him. "Are you okay? What even happened?" Cyrus sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"You're the first person to ask me if I'm okay." Cyrus murmured. "I'm fine, just a few bruises and a broken nose. I got mugged again, but Gadgetman helped me..." Cryptor frowned, crossing his arms.

"I think that has been made very obvious." He huffed. "Word spreads like wild fire. I was hoping for a few of the details no one else seems to care about."

"Not much detail to share." Cyrus shrugged. He reached down and raised his shirt enough to show a large bruise on his stomach. Cryptor frowned even more when he saw the bruise, looking up at Cyrus with concern. "The mugger kicked me first and then proceeded to punch me until I gave him my wallet. He knocked me out but apparently Gadgetman got my wallet back."

"You're sure you're okay? You don't need to go home and rest?"

"I did enough resting at the hospital and at home." Cyrus answered, letting his shirt fall back into place. "Everything is okay. You don't have to worry about me." Cryptor sighed, watching Cyrus go over to his desk as he stood beside the elevator before hearing the elevator moving back up, quite a bit of ruckus coming from the insides. Staring wide eyed at it, Cryptor took a couple steps back. Cyrus attention snapped to the elevator doors. He had not been told of anyone coming up to his office, nor did anyone have permission. From the sound of it, there were quite a few people in the elevator. Cyrus doubted that they were employees. Suddenly panicked, Cyrus looked at Cryptor.

"Hide." He urged. Without hesitation, Cryptor bolted to hide. As the elevator doors opened, Cryptor managed to hide himself. A small group of people hurried out of the elevator and rushed over to Cyrus. The five of them seemed to be reporters and journalists. Immediately they began asking about Gadgetman and how he was saved. As Cyrus was bombarded with questions, he hit a silent alarm button under his desk. Answering a few of the questions that he was able to, Cyrus told them he was unconscious during most of his encounter with the hero. Soon enough, security came and escorted the people out of his office. Cyrus sighed with relief once they were gone.

"You can come out now, Cryptor." He called, shaking his head slowly. After Cyrus had given the go there was a loud crash from where he had hidden. Cryptor, having fallen out of a cabinet, growled as he lied on his back, his feet still awkwardly in the cabinet. With a grumble, Cryptor pulled the rest of himself out of the cramped cabinet and stood up, brushing himself off. Glaring at Cyrus across the room, very irritated with what he had to do, Cryptor walked over to the inventor.

"Remind me again why I need to be kept a secret?" Cyrus frowned at Cryptor's question.

"If you are found out and the public isn't okay with you, they will want me to shut you down again." He answered, awkwardly tapping a finger on his desk. "You know that..." Cryptor grumbled.

"My body isn't meant to be stuffed into small cramped places like cabinets."

"Yeah, I know." Cyrus stated, ceasing his tapping. "I'm going to re-enable your stealth mode again... You'll be able to hide yourself if anything like this happens again." Cryptor huffed, crossing his arms.

"Good, because I don't want to have to go in any more cabinets."

"You shouldn't have to any time soon." Cyrus stated. Cyrus' heart nearly stopped when he heard the elevator again. "Oh my god. Cryptor, you have to hide."

"I am not hiding again." Cryptor quickly protested. "I am not getting crammed into any more small spaces."

"Cryptor, please." Cyrus urged as he took Cryptor's arm and pushed him down and under his desk. Cyrus frantically made sure Cryptor was hidden as the doors opened. Much to his surprise, the one in the elevator was Mindroid. "Oops." Cryptor growled under the desk slamming his hand on the desk and pulling himself out from under it. Glaring at Cyrus and then to Mindroid, Cryptor stormed over to the elevator before the doors closed.


	11. Chapter 11

After Cryptor was finally ungrounded, he resumed working with Jackson once again. Several weeks passed pretty uneventful, Cyrus continued to try and catch the night time renegade, Mindroid worked with P.I.X.A.L. and occasionally messed with Cryptor, while Cryptor continued to get pissed at the small android and desperately wanted to strangle the robot. Cryptor had done several things to find some way to somehow hurt Mindroid, but all failed and he found he could only use words against the robot, most of which weren't taken too seriously.

After having a very irritating night with Mindroid, Cryptor worked with Jackson for a couple of hours, returning to his room while Jackson was on lunch break, stopping as soon as he opened the door. Seeing Mindroid in the room, Cryptor growled, stomping up to him and snatching what he had in his hands.

"Don't touch my stuff and stay off of my side of the room!" Cryptor spat at the small android, clearly agitated that he found what he had. Mindroid was startled by being caught by Cryptor. The small android looked up at Cryptor with a frown.

"Why are you hiding things like that?" Mindroid asked, tilting his head. "It's just a watch."

"It's not just a watch and you shouldn't be holding it." Cryptor hissed, inspecting the item for any damages. "You better not speak a word about it to anyone." Mindroid gave Cryptor a questioned look. Then he smirked.

"And what if I were to speak a word." He beeped, acting innocent. Cryptor growled at Mindroid.

"I'll kill you short legs!" He shouted, going to punch him before he locked up and growled as he pulled away from him. "And if I can't do that you will live and suffer in agony until I can brat."

"I don't think so." Mindroid chuckled, strolling past Cryptor. "You can't even raise a hand to me. How do you expect to make me suffer?" Cryptor growled more, clenching his teeth as he glared at Mindroid.

"It doesn't matter." He huffed. "I'll find a way."

"Oh, and how do you plan on accomplishing that?" Mindroid inquired as he strolled over towards the door. "I doubt that you could do anything." Cryptor frowned, continuing to glare at Mindroid before he smirked.

"I could hug you so tight your head pops off." Mindroid frowned and backed away a little bit.

"You can't do that... I'm sure it qualifies as a violent act." The little android beeped.

"I don't know." Cryptor smiled, holding his arms out for a hug and walking towards him. "Let's find out."

"No!" Mindroid beeped loudly, bolting off down the hallway and towards the nearest elevator. The little android ran as fast as his legs could carry him. The was no way he would let Cryptor find out if hugging would work. Cryptor had chased after Mindroid down the hall, unfortunately losing the android in the elevator, although he wasn't really trying too hard to catch the android. The threat was enough for him. With a huff of irritation, Cryptor crossed his arms as he glared at the elevator before turning away to wander the tower. Unaware that Cryptor had stopped chasing him, Mindroid rode the elevator down to the first floor. Once there, the little android headed towards the front doors, leaving the tower entirely. Luckily, no employees noticed him as he made his way down to the sidewalk.

"Cryptor is such a jerk." Mindroid thought, storming off down the sidewalk. "I never want to see him again..." The little android crossed his arms and glared at the ground as he continued down the sidewalk. "Maybe I should never go back." Mindroid beeped quietly to himself. Smiling at that thought, Mindroid began to look around at the buildings and places around him. It was amazing to be outside for the first time ever. Mindroid giggled and began walking along the curb of the sidewalk, trying to keep his balance. Why had Cyrus never let him go outside before? It was so big and amazing.

As Mindroid walked along the curb, someone backed up and knocked into him. Mindroid ended up stumbling over the side of the curb and into the street. Mindroid sat himself up and began to try to stand before noticing a car heading right for him.

The sound of shattering glass alerted many of the people outside, them all looking up at the shattered window of Borg Tower with a cloaked figure falling out of it. All gasping at the sight, they all watched the night time hero pull out a gun, pointing it at the shattered window frame and firing a hook that shot up and griped onto the ledge. Then the cloaked being pulled out a second grappling hook, firing it at the building once again and retracting the other before quickly swapping it out for another gun like gadget and pointing it out at the street. As the second hook clicked into a crevice on the wall, the other tool shot at the small android in the street, snapping onto the robot and yanking him off the ground and reeling him back in. As Gadgetman swung towards the ground on the fastened grappling hook, he released it as he neared the ground the hook pulling in fast as he caught the small android he had pulled in. Then holding the small bot in one arm, he shot one more hook up at the building, swinging to the ground and releasing the hook as feet met ground. Stumbling forward from the swing, several people all broke out cheering at the act they just saw, several of them had pulled out their phones and recorded it, some snapping pictures. Sending a glance at all of them with his now clearly seen blue mirror lens ski goggles, Gadgetman ignored them, looking into the tower as he saw the purple clad feminine droid enter lobby. Still holding the small, shocked, android, the nighttime hero strode into the tower, passing off the robot before quickly turning and leaving the scene, people still cheering at him.

It was quite a shock to P.I.X.A.L. when the mysterious vigilante handed her Mindroid. She watched in awe as he ran off, leaving the tower and zipping off with the grappling guns. Once the hero was out of sight, P.I.X.A.L. set Mindroid down and immediately questioned him. Hearing the whole story, P.I.X.A.L. took the small android up to Cyrus' office.

Word had traveled fast and Cyrus had already heard about the sudden daytime appearance of Gadgetman. P.I.X.A.L. filled him in on everything that had happened, including how Mindroid had run off and got himself in trouble. Upset by the news, Cyrus asked P.I.X.A.L. to fetch Cryptor.

Unfortunately, it took P.I.X.A.L. a while to find Cryptor, but eventually he was found on the 99th floor heading towards his room. When P.I.X.A.L. told him Cyrus wanted to see him he didn't seem like he wanted to go see him at all, not knowing what Cyrus wanted. Grudgingly he followed P.I.X.A.L. up a floor to Cyrus' office, frowning when he saw Mindroid in the room.

"There you are." Cyrus grumbled, arms crossed and brows furrowed. "Do you know what happened?... Mindroid ran off and almost got hit by a car." Cryptor smirked at what happened to Mindroid.

"That sounds familiar." Cyrus sighed and shook his head, looking down at the little robot in front of him with disappointment. The little android hung his head, feeling ashamed for running off.

"You're rubbing off on him, Cryptor." Cyrus said flatly, looking back at Cryptor. "I hear that he was going to run away to get away from you... I'm sick of you two fighting so much." Cryptor huffed, crossing his arms.

"He's just being stupid and not thinking. How was he even planning on charging himself? Getting hit by a car isn't very smart either. Next time he tries I would recommend staying off the road."

"I was knocked into the road." Mindroid grumbled, glaring at Cryptor from where he stood in front of Cyrus.

"I know just how to deal with you two fighting." The inventor said. He turned his attention back to Mindroid. "Hold still please." He said to the little robot as he leaned down and opened a small compartment on his chest. Cyrus then powered Mindroid off, grabbing him by his sash to keep him from just dropping. Mindroid was then lied out on the floor. Cyrus turned to Cryptor, who was already rapidly hitting the elevator button. Cyrus pulled out the remote and powered Cryptor off.

Watching Cryptor fall to the ground with a wince, Cyrus averted his eyes. Pressing a button on his handlebars, the arms on the back his chair were powered on and he used one to grab Mindroid by his sash. Approaching the other lifeless android, the other arm grabbed him by the back of his shirt. When the elevator doors opened, Cyrus boarded the elevator.

"Come along, P.I.X.A.L. We have work to do."

When Cryptor had finally been powered back on by Cyrus he shot up gasping, immediately recognizing the familiarly wrong feeling.

"No. No. No. No. No." He repeated frantically looking at himself, seeing exactly what he didn't want to see, Mindroid. He was Mindroid. His head shooting up, he quickly located Cyrus with a glare, growling at the inventor. "What did you do?" He spat, quickly standing up on the table. Or tried too. Very quickly, Cryptor lost his balance on the newly reacquired short legs. Trying to catch himself with his hands, the edges his palms just barely hit the edge of the table and slipped off the edge, falling off the table and landing hard on the floor. Cyrus had been powering on Mindroid, who was now in Cryptor's body, when Cryptor fell. The inventor gasped and went to his creation's aid.

"Now, you know to be careful." Cyrus warned, leaning down to help Cryptor up.

"What's going on?" Mindroid murmured from where he lied on the table. Cryptor growled, to infuriated to even notice Mindroid, and clumsily shoved Cyrus' hands away.

"Put me back in me!" He spat, more than pissed off at the inventor. "I am not going to be Mister Midget again!" Mindroid sat up and looked over at Cyrus. Seeing his body by the inventor made the young android realize what had happened.

"So, I'm Cryptor now?" He asked, looking down at his 'new' body.

"Yes. You two will be using each other's bodies until you learn to get along. Walk a mile in each other's shoes." Cyrus stated, going to the other robot's aide. He helped Mindroid off the table. "Be careful." Cryptor's head quickly snapped to Mindroid.

"I am not going to be in this body!" He shouted to Cyrus again, jabbing a finger to point at the other droid. "And that moron is not going to be walking around in me and make a fool of me!" He growled before burying his face in his hand. "You can't even understand me in this dumb piece of trash."

"I am not trash, you twit." Mindroid snapped at Cryptor. He glared at the other android and placed his hands on his hips. "You know what? Your body in the one that's trash. It feels old and clunky."

"That's because it is old idiot!" Cryptor quickly shot back, clenching his fist. "It's not like I was built a week before you! Unlike you," He said tapping on the side of his eyepiece, "I have had to get several parts added to fix me! This body is the pile of garbage! It's can't do anything!"

"I don't know what Cryptor said, but you two need to stop or you won't be switched back." Cyrus cut in, giving the two disappointed looks. "I suggest you behave yourselves ASAP."

"Okay." Mindroid murmured, hanging his head. Mindroid wobbled over to Cyrus and hugged him. Cryptor huffed, crossing his arms. He really disliked the thought of having to be stuck in the short form forever. Watching Mindroid move over to hug Cyrus, Cryptor growled, glaring harshly at him before he stumbled over to the two and tugged at Mindroid.

"Get off of him; that looks weird." Mindroid then pushed Cryptor away. Cryptor frowned when Mindroid pushed him away, almost falling to the ground. Right after he had gotten Cryptor off of him, Mindroid had then begun to try to get onto Cyrus' lap. The inventor immediately stopped him.

"You can't sit on me. You're too big." Cyrus said, patting the bot's shoulder. Mindroid frowned and crossed his arms.

"Fine." He mumbled. Watching Mindroid try to get onto Cyrus' lap, Cryptor broke out laughing at the android.

"It's not funny." Mindroid murmured, glaring at Cryptor.

"At this rate, you two will be in those bodies for a long, long time." Cyrus sighed, shaking his head. "I could get use to not hearing Cryptor's snide comments though. Maybe we'll just keep him like this... heh..." Cryptor's head snapped to Cyrus, charging at the inventor and leaping onto his chair.

"You are not keeping me in this you damn jerk!" Cryptor spat as he leapt and hung on the side of the chair, his legs blindly kicking at the legs of the chair to push himself up. Eventually he managed to grab Cyrus' arm to pull himself up further and began beating on the arm, still dangling over the chair.

"Hey." Cyrus grumbled, grabbing Cryptor by the sash, Cryptor yelping at the grab. Cyrus then lifted the bot up and set him on his lap, proceeding to hug the android and hold his arms down. "I was only kidding. You guys will switch back eventually, just accept your punishment." Sitting awkwardly on Cyrus for a very short time, Cryptor glared a look that could probably burn a hole in the universe before he began struggling.

"Let go of me." He whined as he tried to get out before giving up and flopping forward limply. When finally Cryptor gave in, Cyrus let his arms go and gave the android's head a pat. Then he picked Cryptor up and set him on the ground next to Mindroid.

"Now then, I have work to do." The inventor said, then turning to head towards the door. "Get along, you two." As Cyrus turned to leave, Cryptor stood awkwardly, shifting his gaze between the inventor and Mindroid.

"But I-" he began to say before cutting himself off with a sigh and a grumble, then crossing his arms and looking down at his feet. When Cyrus left Cryptor and Mindroid in the lab, the now taller android gave Cryptor's head a pat. Then he gave Cryptor a little push.

"Hope you enjoy being in my body, jerk." Mindroid said. Cryptor glared at Mindroid from the action.

"I'm sure you'll be enjoying mine even more." He hissed sarcastically, going to stomp towards the elevator before he tripped and fell to the ground.


	12. Chapter 12

Given the predicament the two had been placed in, Cryptor kept a very close eye on Mindroid, not wanting him to do anything he shouldn't. Mindroid was clearly very annoyed by his shadow and would constantly try to lose the droid. Fortunately for Cryptor, he readjusted to the body a little quicker than Mindroid did, having had past experience in it.

Once again trying to lose Cryptor, Mindroid had ran to the elevator, Cryptor had immediately followed tail, struggling a bit to keep up with the now taller robot. Luckily having quickly slipped his way into the elevator before the doors closed on him, Cryptor frowned when he saw the floor Mindroid was going to and the known current time. Quickly claiming Mindroid couldn't be on the floor, Cryptor had first tried to block off the elevator exit, but miserably failed. Quickly chasing after him, Cryptor grabbed onto his leg to try and stop him, but only fell to the floor in the pathetic attempt.

"Mindroid, you can't be on this floor! Just go back in the stupid elevator already!" Cryptor once again protested, refusing to let go of Mindroid's leg, regardless of being dragged across the floor. Not long after dragging Cryptor down the hall, an employee spotted them and smiled. Said employee waved and approached them with a grin. Mindroid stopped in his tracks and waved back.

"Hey, Cryptor." He greeted, now standing in front of the two android's. Cryptor gasped at the sound of the employee's voice, having desperately wished they could avoid this. The employee glanced down at the smaller and smiled. "So, you are Mindroid? Nice to meet you, little fella." Quickly standing up and staring awkwardly at Jackson, Cryptor got in front of Mindroid and began shoving him back towards the elevator the best he could.

"Get going Mindroid! Do not talk to this guy and avoid all interaction with him!"

"Why do you want me to avoid this employee?" Mindroid questioned, looking down at Cryptor. Then he looked back up and the employee and tilted his head as if confused.

"So, Mindroid doesn't want you to see me, Cryptor?" Jackson questioned, brows quirked and his hands on his hips. "Why is that?"

"I am Mindroid and the small one is Cryptor." Mindroid explained. "Cyrus switched our bodies and Cryptor wants me to leave." Cryptor frowned at Mindroid's answer, finally giving up on getting Mindroid to move, not seeing a point of getting him off the floor anymore. Upon hearing the news, Jackson smirked and looked down at the small android.

"Is that so?" With a huff of clear annoyance, Cryptor crossed his arms, shifting a glare between the two taller he stood between.

"Mindroid, you're an idiot." He growled when his glare was directed at the taller android.

"So, how do you like being in Cryptor's body?" Jackson asked, crossing his arms as he spoke. "It's nice being bigger, right?" Mindroid shrugged and glanced down at his body.

"His body is a lot different than mine." He answered. "I like my own body more... his feels weird and old."

"Well, he is older." Jackson said with a wave of his hand. "Not to mention all of the beatings it's taken. I mean, Cryptor tried walking into ongoing traffic once and got his leg messed up." Cryptor huffed, glaring at Jackson.

"And I have no memory of this event what so ever." He grumbled.

"He once set fire to the building too." Jackson continued, patting Cryptor's head. Cryptor growled, growing increasingly agitated with the conversation. "He tried to fix his own hand and sparks went everywhere. Did I mention that he caught me on fire too?" Mindroid snickered, looking down at the other android.

"Wow. What a dumb thing to do." Mindroid laughed.

"Stop telling him these things." He spat, punting Jackson in the leg.

"Ow." Jackson hissed, grabbing Cryptor by his sash and raised him off the ground, holding him arm's length away. Cryptor yelped at being picked up, struggling for a bit to get free.

"Put me down!" He had immediately protested.

"Anyway, I heard that he was defeated by a bubble once?" Jackson continued.

"A bubble?" Mindroid laughed. "How?"

"Cyrus blew the bubble and it stung his eyepiece." Jackson laughed. "Then he stormed off and pouted like a baby." Finally giving up on getting placed down, Cryptor tensed at the mention if the bubble incident.

"That didn't happen." He rejected the story, hating the reminder of his previous weakness.

"Oh goodness, you haven't heard about the vending machine incident." Jackson continued, ignoring Cryptor. "He couldn't figure it out so he blew it up and got himself covered in soda."

"Really?" Mindroid laughed. "He's such a hot head."

"You should have seen how angry he got when he couldn't spin a pen." Jackson added. Cryptor growled, shooting a death screaming glare at Jackson.

"I can do that now." He huffed with irritation before sighing and looking down at the ground. "I feel like I'm talking to a wall."

"Anyway, since he's small, have you thought of getting some revenge for all the mean stuff he's done?" Jackson asked, sending a smirk Cryptor's way. "He was particularly proud of hanging you in that closet."

"No, I haven't thought of that." Mindroid stated. "Cyrus wasn't too happy with him when he did that to me."

"I think Cyrus would understand." Jackson chuckled, handing Cryptor to Mindroid. "Let's do this." Cryptor's eye widened at what Jackson was encouraging Mindroid to do, immediately going on red alert.

"Don't you dare put me in a closet!" Cryptor spat, immediately and desperately trying to get out of the hold. Without a word, Jackson pushed Mindroid off towards a closet. Fully protesting and yelling at the two as they went towards the closet, eventually Cryptor's mood changed from anger to one of panic. Once there, Jackson encouraged Mindroid to hang him on a hook, and reluctantly, Mindroid did as he was told. Cryptor didn't ever cease struggling to get away, but in the end got hung anyway. Shouting threats at the two, they closed the door on him and Jackson's laughter faded as the two walked away. Eventually falling limp, Cryptor miserably stared at the bottom of the closet and waited for one of them to come back to get him out. After a while he figured out neither of them would be coming back, and began struggling to get himself unhooked from the wall. It took a while, but eventually he got himself off.

Loudly crashing to the bottom of the closet, Cryptor fell on jug containing some cleaner, the plastic container busting open and the substance going everywhere. Miserably and soaked in cleaner, Cryptor waded his way out of the now messed up closet and fell into the hall. Growling, he looked back at the disaster of a closet and down both ways of the hall.

"I hate this body." He grumbled storming his way down the hall to the elevator, frowning when he finally entered the lift.

Standing in front of the buttons, he stared up at the button to the 99th floor. He stood for several moments before reaching up to try and press it, accidentally hitting the one to the 69th floor. Growling with irritation, Cryptor glared up at the button he meant to hit as the elevator began to move, then getting up on his tip toes and trying to reach the high up button only to fall over into the pad and hitting several more buttons. Now raging, Cryptor glared even harsher at the keys.

"How does Mindroid ever hit these stupid buttons?!" Cryptor spat to himself as he stared up at the 99th button. Standing still for several moments as the elevator moved to the other buttons he had pressed, Cryptor glared at the button before eventually sighing. Getting up on his tip toes again, Cryptor strained to reach up, managing to hit the button for the 89th floor. Growling with even more frustration, Cryptor threw his arms in the air and making a short walk away from the buttons. "Why is this body so short?!" He shouted to no one, hating that he couldn't even hit a simple button. Dropping his arms and looking back at the pad, Cryptor sighed before walking back over to it. With a grunt, Cryptor jumped off the ground and reached for the 99th floors button once again, his aim being slightly off and just barely hitting the 100th floors button and the wall. "I hate this! This is so dumb!" He spat with clear frustration.

Staring at the door, drenched in irritation, it eventually opened to the 100th floor and Cryptor stood, staring at Cyrus with a look so done with everything. Upon seeing Cryptor, Cyrus looked puzzled. Why was Cryptor up here? Cryptor then tore his gaze from Cyrus, grumbling and turning back to the buttons, once again on his tip toes trying to reach for the 99th floor. Cyrus finally had his answer as he saw Cryptor jumping for the buttons in the elevator. With a sigh, Cyrus steered himself to the elevator.

"What floor do you need?" Cyrus asked with a raised brow. "I assume the one below?" Cryptor frowned when Cyrus came over. He was very disappointed that he couldn't hit the button himself, and greatly wanted to reject the inventors offer to help. Plucking a bit at the wet part of his clothes, Cryptor sighed.

"I hate having to ask for help, but yes." He grumbled with a nod, pointing up at the 99th floors button. Cyrus did not understand Cryptor's beeping, so he ignored it. He noticed that Cryptor was wet, but decided to let the android be on his way. Without a word, Cyrus hit the button for Cryptor before putting his chair in reverse and letting the doors close.

Cryptor sighed when the doors closed to the elevator, shifting a glance up at the button before the elevator stopped and he got out. Sulking his way over to his room, Cryptor slumped against a wall with in it where he decided to wait out the rest of the day.

After leaving Cryptor in the closet, Mindroid was found by P.I.X.A.L. Although he wanted to stay with his new friend, the android had to leave to continue his lessons. Following P.I.X.A.L., Mindroid was led down to one of the many office floors. It was quite boring, but he was used to it by now.

Listening as P.I.X.A.L. talked, Mindroid looked around with a bored look. He hoped that they could go somewhere more exciting today.

P.I.X.A.L. led Mindroid through various areas of the floor, but it was made quite obvious by Mindroid he wasn't very interested today. Having to lead Mindroid in Cryptor was a bit odd for the droid, and she didn't understand why Cyrus had given the two the odd punishment. She didn't see how it would change anything within their relationship, and had only seen more arguing from the two. She was a bit concerned when she had found Mindroid earlier to find Cryptor not with him, as the now shorter android would always be found with Mindroid during this swap.

Given the task at hand, P.I.X.A.L. wished she could teach Mindroid more useful skills, but while Mindroid possessed Cryptor's form, they were very limited to what they could do. Not really having much options, P.I.X.A.L. continued on with the lesson at hand. It wasn't a very complicated one, and she would probably let Mindroid off a little early. As the lesson continued on, Mindroid became more and more bored with his situation. Finally he had enough.

"Can we please go down to a more significant level?" Mindroid grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "I already know this stuff you're teaching me, so why not move on?" P.I.X.A.L. sighed at Mindroid's request, stopping the lesson and turning look at him.

"No we can't." She answered him. "Given your current condition, we're very limited to what we can do. Until you are returned back to normal we'll have to stick to the upper floors. I'd rather not risk taking you to one of the more significant rooms." Mindroid sighed and pouted.

"I do not understand why I can't be seen in this body." He murmured. "What's the big deal? I'm seen in my body in the lower floors all the time. Why is Cryptor any different?"

"For the same reason we can't speak of him so freely." P.I.X.A.L. stated. "People don't know you're not Cryptor, and if you were to be seen, would cause Cyrus a lot of problems. He has enough on his hands, and doesn't need any more to deal with."

Mindroid nodded slowly. "I understand I suppose." He murmured. "We can continue now..." With a nod, P.I.X.A.L. briskly turned back around to continue on. Mindroid mumbled something inaudible to the other android as they resumed the lesson He was not in a very good mood today. Perhaps Cryptor's body just made any AI feel pissy about everything.

"I don't think I'm charged enough, I'm feeling low." He grumbled. "May I be excused?" P.I.X.A.L. sighed, turning again to look at him, analyzing his condition quickly. He didn't really look too low and could probably go for a few more hours, but she didn't bother questioning it.

"Yes you may. Do you need any assistance returning to your room?"

"I can get to my room on my own." Mindroid huffed as he turned to leave. As he headed off towards where they came from, he lost balance. He tried to regain balance but failed, toppling to his backside. Grumbling to himself, Mindroid got up and continued off towards the elevator. Boarding the elevator, he hit the button to go up to the ninety ninth floor. Once on the floor, Mindroid stormed off to his room and entered abruptly to find Cryptor fiddling with something.

Within the room, Cryptor was very concentrated on his work, working slowly to make sure he got everything right. He worked for a while, but hardly got anything done. Absorbed in his work, when Mindroid entered the room Cryptor practically jumped out of his borrowed mainframe. Quickly scrabbling to try and hide it, he looked to see how miserable of a job he had done, then looking up at Mindroid with a glare.

"I thought I told you to knock." He gritted his teeth, looking back to the watch and more carefully collecting all its parts. Hopping off the chair, he carried the pieces away to hide them.

"Right, I forgot." Mindroid murmured with arms crossed over his chest. He was in no mood to put up with Cryptor's attitude. Mindroid entered further and sat in the chair Cryptor had once sat on. Through his peripheral vision, he watched Cryptor hide his little watch.

"Why do you keep fiddling with that stupid watch?" Mindroid mumbled. "Is it special or something?"

"It's none of your business." Cryptor huffed, shifting another glare at him.

"Whatever. I bet it doesn't even work, brat." The now taller android growled, tapping his foot against the floor. "Why you would focus on something so stupid is beyond me..." Cryptor growled at Mindroid, glaring harshly and clenching his fist.

"It doesn't work because I don't know what I'm doing!" Cryptor snapped at him. "I wasn't built to build things! I'm messing with it so it does work!"

"Wow, admitting that you can't do something? How grown up of you." Mindroid retorted with blatant sarcasm. "Maybe you shouldn't be doing something you weren't built for, dimwit." Cryptor scowled at Mindroid, stomping a few steps towards Mindroid.

"I would be doing something I was built for if I was able to!" He hissed.

"Well, are you no good at what you were built for too?" Mindroid barked. "I assume that's why you can't go certain places. Because you are a failure, tin can."

"I AM NOT A TIN CAN!" Cryptor quickly bellowed to Mindroid. Frowning, Cryptor looked down at the ground. As much as he didn't want it to show, the robots words still hurt. "It's not like you do anything significant." Cryptor grunted back. Mindroid just sighed and shook his head. Without a word, he snagged Cryptor and held him in a tight hug. He held his previous body on his lap, keeping Cryptor's arms to his sides. For the moment of silence from Mindroid, Cryptor was anything but silent. Giving a yelp at the unexpected assault from Mindroid, Cryptor struggled, demanding to be released and claiming how he wasn't a teddy bear and wasn't something to be cuddled with.

After a while of sitting, Mindroid mumbled to himself. "I wish I had a more interesting directive... I wish I could go outside too." He mumbled. It wasn't until Mindroid spoke again that Cryptor locked up, finally giving in and looking down at his lap.

"You know, interesting isn't always better... It's better to be in here than out there..." He mumbled back to Mindroid.

"How would you know?" Mindroid murmured. "Were you built for something more exciting than being stuck here?" Cryptor shook his head with a grumble, looking up at Mindroid from the awkward angle.

"How much do you even know about me?"

"I know that you are mean and not allowed on a lot of floors." Mindroid stated. "I know that you have some sort of troubled past or whatever too." Cryptor sighed, looking back down at his lap and shifting awkwardly.

"So you don't know why I can't be everywhere... I guess I should tell you if you want to go out there and get yourself killed." Sighing again and shifting on Mindroid's lap once again Cryptor began. "I guess I should begin from the start... I can't actually say much about that though. I know that in the beginning I had a lot of problems in the construction of my body, it made it hard to walk and eventually I had to get turned off. My first day wasn't even a whole day and I stayed off for about a month while the tower was still under construction. A lot of the details for my first couple of months are very choppy though. Apparently I got abused a lot and damaged a bit. I would probably remember it all and maybe be a completely different person if I haven't had several of my memories deleted.

"I don't really know much about how that happened... I know that day Cyrus had reprogrammed me to follow orders better, but he didn't set down any rules. Apparently he fell asleep and someone told me to get hit by a car, so I did it. Fortunately Jackson saved me from getting hit head on but then some other employee decided to shut me off and 'fix' me while Cyrus was asleep. She ended up deleting a lot and changed my purpose all together. Cyrus fixed me though." Cryptor paused and sighed.

"Jackson and Cyrus worked together to re-teach me things so I could do my job. I had to relearn a few parts of my combat training and even simple things like what a light bulb was." Cryptor chuckled a little before sighing and looking out the window. "I never did get to do my directive... I was supposed to protect the people of Ninjago... I should be out on the streets, fighting crime.

"I got a little sensitive with how the public treated me like I didn't have any emotions, One day I ran out of the city all together wanting to be destroyed. I guess the public never liked me ever... When I went out of the city someone brought me back, he just happened to be friends with the robot I was modeled after. His name is Zane, Zane Julien. He and I both have the same directive, although he seems to be a lot more successful than me. He's perfect, everything I'm not. I hardly even scale next to him, the public loves him, he's very nice, heck, he doesn't even look like a robot." Cryptor sighed.

"I hate him. He ended up coming here once to talk to Cyrus about me. He didn't really like me either I don't think. I think he was trying to convince Cyrus to start over with me. I ended up sparing with him after an argument, ended up ripping off his face." Cryptor chucked once again. "I have to admit, he deserved it, although I regret every moment of that incident. The public caught word of it and..." Cryptor frowned, falling silent and looking down. "They made Cyrus turn me off. I was discontinued. A failed project. I was too dangerous to be active." He sighed staying silent. "I was powered off for an entire year. A whole year passed me in the blink of an eye. I wasn't powered back on until a few months ago. Cyrus says he's trying to get my life back on track, but I don't think he's doing anything and doubt he ever will. Trying to get me adjusted to the new world, he ended up building your body, this one. Your body was supposed to be mine. He built it so I could go out into the city without anyone knowing. I used it once and hated every moment of it, never used it again. He however didn't want to waste the body, so he made you to fill it." He laughed for a moment. "To think, if I had actually liked this, you wouldn't exist." Mindroid had throughout Cryptor's entire monologue. He was shocked by what Cryptor told him. The older android had been through a lot. He felt bad for the things he said to Cryptor. Now that he knew what had happened to the other android, he realized just how harsh his words were.

One specific part stuck with Mindroid though. He had been told about Cryptor previously hating his body, but it had never sunk in that his body was supposed to be Cryptor's. Mindroid was nothing more than a body filler, created only to use a body that would have otherwise gone to waste. With a frown, Mindroid let his head rest on Cryptor's.

"I had no idea…" He murmured. "What you went through is very terrible... Wh-why didn't Cyrus fight for you?" Cryptor frowned, looking down at the ground.

"Cyrus fought against the public for months before he gave in. I guess it just got too out of hand..."

"Oh... What made him decide to turn you back on?" Mindroid asked.

"I don't know." He sighed. "Missed me to much or something I think... I wish he didn't. He's just going to have to power me off again."

"Can't we do something to make people like you?" Mindroid asked with a furrowed brow. "There has to be some way for you to do what you were built for."

"No." Cryptor huffed in response. "I can't do anything and I doubt there's anything you could." Mindroid shook his head slowly, feeling sorry for Cryptor. With a sigh, he picked Cryptor up and set him on his feet.

"I'm sure there's some way you can do what you were built for." He murmured. "Even if you have to do it in secret." Cryptor snorted at the recommendation, crossing his arms.

"That's ridiculous, I can't even leave the tower. How would I even do it in secret, it's not particularly easy to cover these things up." He said tapping on his eye piece.

"Right, that idea is pretty stupid." Mindroid mumbled. "I guess there's nothing we can do for you..."


	13. Chapter 13

It took a couple of days for Cyrus to figure out the two had begun to get along better. After Cryptor had explained his past to Mindroid, the droid had become more understanding of Cryptor and didn't annoy him as much.

Cyrus finally deciding to switch the two back, powered them off to transfer them. As soon as Cryptor got powered on, he immediately got off the table to leave, but stumbled and nearly fell, unused to his normal body. Being out of it for a couple of days can really disorient someone. As quickly as he could, Cryptor made his way over to the elevator, having things on his mind he wanted to do.

It took a lot longer than necessary, but Cryptor stormed into the testing room and up to Jackson, ripping his clipboard from his hands and smacking him on the head with it.

"That's for hanging me in a closet." He growled, then flicking the employee in the forehead. "And that's for telling Mindroid things he didn't need to know." Jackson was caught off guard by Cryptor's sudden attack. He winced with the smack and the flick, whining each time. He was a bit dumbfounded at first but grinned when he realized what Cryptor was talking about.

"You deserved it, mister grumpy gears." Jackson laughed, giving Cryptor a nudge. "You're so mean to Mindroid, he deserved some revenge on you. And I owed you for all the insults you've slung my way." Cryptor growled, thrusting the clipboard into the employee.

"No you don't. You're a moron who should be insulted. I'm just making it clear what you are. I'm sure you've done stupid things you don't want to talk about. Maybe I should go ask Craig about that."

"No, do not talk to Craig." Jackson urged. Craig knew too much about Jackson for Cryptor to ask him for embarrassing stories. "Just don't." Cryptor smirked at Jackson's response, going to cross his arms before quickly bringing a hand out to hold onto the table next to him to keep from falling.

"You're making me just want to ask him more." Jackson opened his mouth to tell Cryptor not to talk to Craig before stopping himself. With a smirk, he crossed his arms and raised a brow.

"You aren't allowed on the floor he works on." He snickered triumphantly. Cryptor huffed glaring at Jackson.

"I'm not allowed to be seen on those floors." He countered back.

"You can't go down to his work floor, Cryptor." Jackson snickered. "How do you expect to get Craig's attention without giving yourself up? Would you really risk your life and cause Cyrus more heartbreak just to laugh at me?" Cryptor huffed looking down at the ground. Of course he wouldn't actually go down to the floor.

"I'll just have to wait for him to come up here for you then."

"Fat chance." Jackson laughed, giving Cryptor a nudge. Then, as if on cue, Craig entered the room with a brown paper bag. Jackson stared blankly as Craig marched over to him and thrust it at him. Jackson took the bag and looked at Craig with a quirked brow.

"You forgot your lunch again." Craig stated flatly. "I swear, you'd forget your head if it weren't attached to your body."

"Oh, right." Jackson blurted. "Thanks, Craig. You can go now. Bye bye. See you after work."

"Wow, you sure do want me to leave in a hurry." Craig noted as Jackson began pushing him towards the door. Cryptor watched silently before Jackson began to shove Craig away. Laughing, Cryptor carefully crossed his arms.

"Yeah Jackson, you sure are in a hurry to get him out of here. Why don't you let him stick around for a bit? I was starting to forget what Craig looked like."

"He has work and I have work. We have no time." Jackson urged, continuing to push the other towards the door.

"Then you work." Craig said, pushing Jackson away. "I can have a moment to speak with Cryptor."

"I haven't talked to Craig in a while Jackson, if you're so worried about work, get back to work." Cryptor said as he walked over to the two. Losing his balance next to Jackson, he quickly grabbed onto Jackson to keep from falling. Quickly trying to cover up the stumble, Cryptor stood back up straighter and firmly patted Jackson on the shoulder.

"But... But... Ugh. Fine." Jackson grumbled. With a defeated sigh, Jackson brushed Cryptor's hand from his shoulder and turned back to work. As he worked, he listened carefully to the two, wanting to know what they would be saying.

"So, how have you been?" Craig asked, focusing on Cryptor now.

"Last few days have been… odd…" Cryptor answered before pointing at Jackson with his thumb and speaking in a more hushed tone. "Jackson thinks I'm going to ask you for embarrassing stories of his but I really don't care." Craig nodded slowly, a smirk growing on his face. Catching Jackson looking back at them, Craig sent him a devious look before motioning for Cryptor to lean down near him. With a hushed chuckle, Craig began to whisper.

"He's going to think that I told you something." He whispered. "Every time he asks what, tell him it's nothing then laugh to yourself. It'll drive him crazy... Now, when we part, you need to act like I just told you something hilarious." Cryptor was a bit confused by what Craig was telling him at first before he smirked. Snickering, he stood back up straighter and crossed his arms, glancing back at Jackson, before turning back to Craig and laughing some more.

"Really?" He said, playing along. Craig snickered, giving Cryptor a little nudge.

"Yeah. Don't tell him I told you that." He said at a volume just loud enough for Jackson to hear. "Well, I have to go now. It was good talking to you. Maybe I'll see you around." When Craig turned to leave, Jackson turned to watch him go. With a grumble, he went back to work, testing prototypes with clear frustration. As Craig left, Cryptor smirked and stumbled back over to Jackson.

"What are you working on?" Cryptor asked as he looked at the prototypes. Sending a glance at Jackson, Cryptor smirked, holding back a laugh before looking away. Jackson's cheeks were red from embarrassment. He had no clue what Craig had told Cryptor, but he was already embarrassed. With Cryptor snickering, Jackson had a feeling it was something bad.

"It's nothing significant." Jackson grumbled, setting the spring operated boots back on the table. "What did Craig tell you?" Cryptor smirked, suppressing another laugh.

"It's nothing." He answered before reaching for a prototype, almost immediately losing balance.

"Having trouble?" He asked, still sounding irritated. He watched cautiously as Cryptor caught his balance again. He would be ready to help him if he needed it. He was not happy, but he would not just let Cryptor wobble about without help. Cryptor huffed, irritated with himself.

"I'm fine." He grunted as he straightened himself out, then reaching for the prototype he meant to grab.

"If you say so." The employee sighed. He picked his clipboard off of the table. He was not sure about Cryptor testing the prototypes when he constantly lost his balance. "Maybe you should record the data..." Cryptor grumbled, shifting a glare at Jackson. Soon after he started glaring though, he cracked a smirk before laughing a bit and looking back to the prototype.

"I can work with prototypes fine." He chucked as he rotated the prototype in his hands, flicking at different parts to test it.

"If you say so." Jackson sighed. He could only hope that Cryptor would not accidentally smash a valuable prototype. "Just don't break anything." Cryptor growled, now glaring at the prototype he was holding.

"I'm not going to break anything."

"Sure you won't." Jackson grumbled. Looking down at his clipboard, he found the form needed for the prototype Cryptor currently held. "... Tell me what Craig told you." Cryptor snorted as soon as Jackson demanded the answer.

"You don't need to know." He chuckled as he fiddled with the prototype.

"Come on, if you're going to laugh at me, I want to at least know why." Jackson groaned, giving Cryptor an irritated look. Putting his hands on his hips, he's lower lip poked out like it did whenever he was frustrated. "Did he tell you about my kitten calendar?" Cryptor broke out laughing at Jackson, dropping the prototype down on the table.

"No he didn't. A kitten calendar? How many dresses do you have in your wardrobe? Don't tell me you make bouquets of flowers every Sunday morning too."

"Of course not. I'm allergic to pollen." He grumbled, glaring back at his clipboard. Jackson's face was bright red by now. He had accidentally embarrassed himself. He felt like a fool now. "Kittens are cute, you jerk." He murmured to himself. "Are you gonna test that prototype or not?" Cryptor snorted, still laughing at Jackson.

"Yes, I am." He answered, picking back up the prototype.

"Get to it then." Jackson huffed, sick of waiting for Cryptor to do something.

"I have been if you haven't been paying attention and went off to rainbow fluffy kitten land." Cryptor huffed with irritation, shoving the prototype at Jackson. "I think it's broken."

"Right…" Jackson murmured. He needed to calm down. So what if Cryptor knew something about him. So what if he did not know what that something was. So what if he laughed about it and mocked him for whatever it is... "What did he tell you?" Jackson blurted setting his clipboard down. "Was it about the birthmark on my lower back?" Cryptor chuckled, taking the ignored prototype and placing it on the table.

"No he didn't." He answered, crossing his arms. "You seemed to be so concerned with work, but yet you are failing to do anything but play a guessing game."

"Yeah, I suppose I should focus more on work." Jackson sighed, shaking his head. He needed to worry about getting work done more than whatever Cryptor knew about him. It was a waste of time to be so concerned over nothing. He was disappointed with himself now. The employee looked over at what Cryptor was testing and double checked if he was actually on the right form or not. He had been so focused on Cryptor before, he had to make sure everything was in order just in case.

Cryptor rather quickly got bored of the silence between the two as they worked. As he tested several components of the prototype, Cryptor finally broke the silence.

"Cyrus thinks you're Gadgetman." He randomly blurted out, his focus still trained on the prototype. Jackson looked up from his clipboard and at the android. He looked dumbfounded for a moment before a grin spread across his face. The employee began to laugh and set his clipboard down on the table.

"So, he thinks that I'm the hero that's been running around the city, saving people?" Jackson asked, shaking his head as his hands went to his hips. "Well, I suppose I'm pretty heroic looking." Jackson added, flexing his arms as he did. Cryptor snorted at Jackson's response, shaking his head.

"Sure you are." He scoffed placing the prototype down and turning to Jackson with crossed arms. "And I'm sure you love fanboying over yourself as much as you do. How much blood do you see every night?"

"I never said I was Gadgetman, I said I look heroic in build." Jackson said, putting his hands back on his hips. "I'm clearly not G-man but I can see why Cyrus is suspicious."

"Some clues to you being him yes, but too many proving against it." He grunted back. "You're too pathetic to be Gadgetman."

"Oh and I bet you must be a much better Gadgetman than me." Jackson scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Built for combat, yet so accident prone you can hardly go a week without breaking something. I bet you'd wreck those stolen prototypes he uses. If you were Gadgetman, I bet you'd be coming to me with a broken something or other." Cryptor scoffed, very quickly looking quite offended.

"I don't break things that often! There is several weeks I have not broken anything!" He spat moving to jab Jackson in the chest before he toppled over, landing hard on the table and hearing a crack. Grumbling, he stood back up to look for what made the noise. Finding a snapped prototype he picked it up, roughly taking the two sides and trying to stick them back together. Growling at the attempt that obviously wouldn't have worked, he dropped the broken prototype and kicked it away. "Damn it." Jackson snickered as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"My point exactly, clutsy Cryptor." He teased with a smug grin on his face. "Now help me clean up this mess you've made." Cryptor grumbled crossing his arms and glaring at Jackson as he leaned against the table, refusing to do anything to clean up the broken prototype as usual.

"That one doesn't count. I've been out of this body for a while, I'm not readjusted." He huffed with annoyance.

"If it's not one excuse, it's another." Jackson sighed, bending down to clean up by himself. He began to collect the pieces and whatnot, looking up at Cryptor as he did. Once the parts were collected, he set them on the table.

Jackson then picked up the clipboard and his pen and began to write on a form. "Memo, broken by Cryptor." He narrated as he wrote. Cryptor growled, glaring at Jackson for several moments before he swiftly turned away, storming out of the room without a word.


	14. Chapter 14

The shaded figure leapt across buildings, holding its limp arm as it skidded to a halt next to a street sign, pausing as it read the lettering. Melanie Street. Standing still for a couple of moments, the figure stared at the sign, then down the street. Quickly, the cloaked shadow shot down the street, its boots clopping against the buildings. On the fourth house down, the figure darted past a window, shoes clattering on the iron grated balcony as it looked into the house to analyze the figures quickly. Confirming he had the right house, he leapt his way down to the ground approaching the door to the house, beginning to bash on the doorbell repetitively.

Much ruckus being heard inside, irritated voices and crashing, the door was finally opened by an employee that worked at Borg Tower. The man looked like he had been woken up and didn't look happy opening the door, but after seeing the figure that stood there, he gasped, gawking at the cloaked man. Without a word, the mysterious figure brushed past him into the house. Stomping up a set of stairs with his magnetic boots, he turned a corner and slammed open the door to a bedroom flicking on the lights despite the protesting man who answered the door, waking up the other man who slept in a bed. Gadgetman stood silently in the doorway as they woke up, still holding their limp arm, then finally walking into the room further, the unknown hero began to yank off the red scarf, dropping it onto the floor carelessly.

"Jackson, I need help." He spoke as he pulled off the hood to the cloak and pulled off the goggles with his one useable hand. The employee stirred in his sleep. His eyes opened for a moment, looking around groggily. He groaned and rolled over, his back now facing the nighttime vigilante. In his sleepy state, Jackson grabbed the spare pillow and held it in his arms. His soft snoring continued then. Seeing Jackson turn to go back to sleep, Gadgetman growled. Stomping around the bed, ripping the pillow away and chucking it at the wall.

"Jackson!" He snapped at Jackson. The employee woke with a jolt when he heard a familiar voice. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes to clear his vision, groaning groggily as he did. Jackson then stretched out before looking up at last. He was shocked when he was greeted by a familiar face, sitting up abruptly.

"Cryptor, wha-what are you doing in my room?" He bleated, climbing out of bed and giving the other a look down. He immediately noticed the limp arm. "What happened to you?" Cryptor groaned at the employees question.

"How dumb can you get, Jackson?" He grumbled as he glared flatly at his just awoken friend. "I think it's rather obvious my arm is broken." He explained as he lifted his shattered arm with the other to make his point. "I need it fixed before Cyrus gets back to the tower in the morning." Jackson sighed in irritation. The groggy employee crossed his arms and shook his head.

"How did you break your arm so bad?" He asked, sounding exhausted. "Did Gadgetman get beat up, hm?" Cryptor growled, clenching the one fist he could.

"Obviously." He huffed. "You try getting in a fight with eighteen idiots. One of them managed to shatter my arm with an iron baseball bat." Jackson shrugged, honestly feeling bad for Cryptor.

"I'll have to call Kev and see if he can open the shop, because I don't have the parts to repair your arm here." He said as he retrieved the phone from his nightstand. He began dialing a number after that. "Why don't you go wait down in the car while I get ready?" Cryptor sighed, annoyed with the whole fiasco.

"Fine." He huffed turning away from Jackson and sweeping up his goggles and scarf he dropped onto the floor on his way out. Jackson called his friend, greeted with an irritated, groggy response. Jackson apologized for the late call and explained the situation vaguely to Kevin before asking for him to meet them down at the robotics shop. When Kevin agreed, Jackson hung up and got dressed, grabbing his keys off the nightstand. Oh his way out of the room, he snagged Cryptor by the arm and pulled him out to the garage. Then they climbed in and pulled out.

"So, you really are Gadgetman." Jackson yawned. "That's pretty cool. I don't suppose you ever plan on coming clean to Cyrus, huh?" Cryptor huffed, sitting awkwardly in the car. Transportation by car wasn't particularly his favorite method of transportation at the time.

"If I was, why would I even be bothering you?" He grumbled a response. Jackson shrugged and shook his head.

"I guess you have a point... So, why did you decide to go all vigilante?" He asked, glancing over at Cryptor, brow quirked. Cryptor shrugged back.

"P.I.X.A.L recommended it in a way." He answered. "It's a start to getting me out of that stupid tower and known by the public."

"Do you enjoy saving people and kicking butt?" Jackson asked, though he was certain he knew the answer. "I mean, it's probably very exciting to finally do what you were built for, right?" Cryptor shrugged once again, staring bored out the window of the car through his mirror lens goggles.

"More exciting than sitting around the tower all day. Sure it's what I am built to do, but it's not like I hadn't done it before a few times. Now I'm just limited to what I can do, and the prototypes can be quite annoying. I would much rather run the city as myself, not Gadgetman."

"Well, someday you'll be able to be the hero you were built for, not some masked vigilante." Jackson said, turning down the street the shop was on. The shop was just a few blocks down the road. "We'll be there soon. I'll get you fixed up and you head back to the tower."

"This better not take long. Cyrus will know something is up if I'm not in my room when he gets back." Cryptor grumbled.

"I'll work as fast as I can." The employee shrugged. Jackson pulled up to the shop and looked in through the windows. The lights weren't on yet and he saw no one inside. With a sigh, he leaned back in his seat and rubbed his eyes sleepily.

"Kevin isn't here yet." He murmured. Cryptor sighed, shifting a glance from the store front over to Jackson. Growing irritated the more he had to wait, he decided to keep his gaze focused on the shop looking for any sort of motion on the scarcely used street. Jackson yawned sleepily as they waited. Growing bored, he reached over the glove compartment on Cryptor's side of the car. Opening it, he pulled out a skein of yarn and a pair of knitting needles with a project already attached to them. Then, without delay, Jackson began to knit. Cryptor stared as his hands worked in silence before he finally spoke.

"You just keep getting more and more girly the longer I get to know you."

"Hey, keep your gender roles away from me." Jackson retorted, without looking up from his knitting. "This is my hobby and I don't care what you think."

"Whatever you say." Cryptor rolled his eye, turning to look out the window. "Why don't you knit some hearts and flowers on that while you're at it?"

"That's a good idea, considering it's for my sister's baby girl." Jackson scoffed. "Too bad I'm already halfway through." Then the employee's pocket vibrated. He set his knitting down and pulled his phone out, checking his text messages. "Kevin's almost here." He said, shoving his phone back in his pocket. Then he climbed out of his car to wait by the door. Cryptor watched Jackson get out of the car, staring at him for several moments before deciding to get out of the car as well. Walking over to Jackson with his crippled arm grasped in his hand, he leaned against the wall next to the employee.

"You realize that if I had never met Kevin before there is no way I would play along with this." He huffed, continuing to grow even more frustrated with his situation.

"Well, you would have found another way to get that arm of yours fixed." Jackson scoffed, rolling his eyes. "He's never seen you in this body, so we'll have to explain a thing or two... Also, we'll have to make sure his lips aren't loose."

"How much did you even say to him over the phone?" He grumbled, not wanting to explain anything but get his arm fixed.

"I just told him it was an emergency and that he'd get to see some fine Borg tech up close and personal." Jackson shrugged. "Had to promise him he'd get to take a look..." Cryptor huffed.

"Right. He wanted to look at me last time, regardless if I was Mindroid then." He grumbled. "Just make sure he doesn't do anything that will mess me up."

"Don't worry, he'll be respectful." Jackson shrugged, checking the time on his phone. "He may be too busy being a fanboy to even do anything anyway because you're an android and the famous Gadgetman..."

"Hey!" A voice called from down the street. It was Kevin. The shop owner jogged up to the duo with his store keys in hand. He stopped abruptly in front of Cryptor and Jackson when he saw the masked hero, his jaw hanging in awe. "When you said Borg tech, I never would have thought you would bring Gadgetman."

"Yeah, yeah. Just open the door so we can get to work already." Jackson shrugged. Kevin nodded and did as he was told, opening the door and motioning for them to enter. Once inside, Jackson pulled Cryptor over to a table that was used as a work station. The Borg employee immediately went to examining the damage to the other's arm. Cryptor then went to remove his scarf hood and goggles, Kevin even more surprised.

"Wait, Gadgetman is an android?" He gasped.

"Yes, I am." Cryptor growled.

"So, uh, what happened to you?" Kevin asked, obviously trying to keep his cool. He was in the presence of Gadgetman after all, and to top it off, an android at that.

"I can handle a lot of people, but eighteen is beginning to become a little much for me." Cryptor grumbled, watching Jackson poke around at his arm. "One of them managed to smash my arm with a baseball bat." Cryptor looked up at Kevin. "Jackson knows everything already, so ask him. I don't want to have to explain everything to you. I just want my arm fixed so I can get back to the tower before Cyrus gets back." The shop owner simply nodded, looking at Jackson as he examined the damage. By the looks of it, the Borg employee was too into his work to answer his question. Before long, Jackson stood up to do find the parts and tools necessary for the repairs, leaving Kevin with Cryptor. For some time, they sat in silence. All the while, Kevin looked at Cryptor, taking in his appearance. The android looked familiar, but he could not place him. It was at the tip of Kevin's tongue. Then it hit him.

"...Weren't you that android that the city told Cyrus to terminate?" Kevin asked quietly, as if he thought someone would hear.

"Is there a problem with that?" Cryptor glowered at Kevin, very irritated by the question.

"Oh, no. There's not a problem... I just thought you looked familiar." Kevin sputtered, waving his hands dismissively as he spoke. "Sorry about bringing it up. I should have known it was a sore subject."

"You probably shouldn't talk about his past at all." Jackson said as he approached the table with everything he needed to repair Cryptor's arm. He quickly set everything out and double checked to make sure he had not forgotten anything. "You can put all of this on my tab, Kev."

"Will do." Kevin said with a nod, taking a mental note of all the parts Jackson was going to use. "Would you like help fixing him up?"

"Eh, I can handle it." Jackson sighed, looking at Cryptor from the corner of his eye. He knew Cryptor would likely not want to be touched by Kevin. "We'll have to shut you off now, Cryptor." Cryptor grumbled, looking at the collection of parts Jackson had collected. Looking at Jackson with a glare, he shifted a glance at Kevin, remembering the last time he met him. Sighing, he turned his gaze back at Jackson.

"Since he wanted a look for that prosthetic for his brother, he can touch a little, but don't let him do anything." He grumbled. "I'd rather he didn't touch me at all so keep it at a minimum."

"Wait, how did you know about the- Were you- Jackson, was he the- the other android you brought in?" Kevin sputtered with quirked brows.

"Yes, now be quiet." Jackson shrugged. "I promise he will be doing minimal touching, Cryptor." Jackson then made sure Cryptor would not topple over in the chair when powered off. He quickly assured Cryptor that he would be turned on as soon as possible. Then Cryptor was shut off. Then Jackson went to work on Cryptor with Kevin watching over him. Cryptor's arm took a while to get repaired, about an hour and a half. Jackson took some extra time to make sure everything was in tip top shape. Cryptor needed to be in pristine condition if he was going to continue fighting. When Jackson was satisfied, he powered Cryptor on again. When Cryptor regained power, he was slightly confused, but that only lasted for a couple of seconds as he recollected the conspiring events. Making a quick observation of the repair, he was satisfied with the work.

"Time?" He immediate asked, looking up at Jackson.

"A little more than an hour and a half." Jackson answered, watching Cryptor move his arm. "How does it feel? Not stiff or anything, right?" Cryptor nodded, standing up.

"It's passable." He answered, grabbing up his accessories. "I need to get back to the tower, Mindroid is probably starting to question where I am, I shouldn't be out this late." He sighed. "I'm going to be so low on power later…"

"You'll think of some excuse." Jackson sighed, standing up from his seat. He gave the android's shoulder a firm pat and yawned a little. "I'll make sure Kevin keeps his mouth shut, you hurry home."

"Oh, I won't tell a soul." Kevin said, keeping his thoughts to himself. "You have my word." Jackson wiped the sleep from his eyes as he walked around the table, heading to the door.

"Oh, and you owe me one, Cryptor." Jackson added before heading out to his car.

**A/N: Wow! Surprise right? I bet no one thought it was Cryptor, heh. Nah, you all were probably suspecting Cryptor...**


	15. Chapter 15

It had been four days since Jackson had repaired Cryptor's arm. Since he had found out Gadgetman's secret identity, he had kept quiet, though he acted strange whenever the subject of Gadgetman was brought up. As hard as he tried to act natural, he always tried to change the subject when asked about Gadgetman or whenever the vigilante was on the news. Luckily, no one really questioned his behavior. Not until Cyrus came down to the testing room that is. The inventor had grown tired with his private investigation and decided to question each employee alone about the hero. When he started the questioning, Jackson internally began to panic. He was afraid he would accidentally slip up.

"Cryptor, what should I do if he asks me about you?" Jackson asked with a hushed tone, looking over at Cyrus cautiously. Cryptor shrugged, flicking at a prototype he was holding.

"He's already questioned me about the subject several times." He muttered, taking a quick glance up at Cyrus. "Just lead him off the trail." Jackson shrugged, looking back at his clipboard.

"Alright, I'll try." He said, feeling a bit nervous about the whole thing. Cyrus had questioned him before somewhat and he did fine, but he did not know anything then. Now he knew who Gadgetman was and had to keep it a secret. It was a lot of pressure. Cyrus continued questioning each employee alone, slowly making his way down the line. Soon enough, it was Cryptor's turn. The inventor did not expect much from Cryptor, but he was going to treat him like the rest of his testers. No playing favorites down here.

"This will be quick, Cryptor." Cyrus said as he motioned for Cryptor to follow him away from Jackson. The inventor took note of Jackson's fidgety behavior before turning away. Cryptor grumbled, irritated he had to stop testing. Following Cyrus, he crossed his arms as they stopped.

"I've already told you a thousand times over, I'm not Gadgetman. If that's what you're getting at, I'm not who you're looking for." He growled, clearly showing his irritation towards Cyrus. Cyrus sighed and shook his head.

"I'm not here to ask you if you're Gadgetman." He said, turning around to face Cryptor. "No one is going to come clean just because I ask them, Cryptor. That's why I'm asking if you've noticed any strange behavior among your coworkers, is anyone acting suspicious?" Cryptor huffed, relaxing a bit.

"No I haven't, not of late." He grunted. "Is that all you wanted to ask?" Cyrus simply shrugged, glancing over at Jackson when he noticed the employee staring. With a quirked brow, Cyrus crossed his arms over his chest.

"Are you sure no one's been acting... off? And by that I mean, Jackson is being quite fidgety and nervous it seems." He said, looking back and forth between Cryptor and Jackson. "He's not acting suspicious to you?" Cryptor frowned, glancing over at Jackson.

"No he hasn't, he's been normal up until now." Cryptor paused, looking back at Cyrus. "It could be a possibility he's Gadgetman, but he hasn't lead anything on. I highly doubt he is with how useless he is, but the world is full of surprises, isn't it?" Cyrus' brows furrowed as he looked over at Jackson, seeing that he was watching them again.

"Can you send him over, Cryptor?" Cyrus asked, looking back at the android.

"Yes." He grumbled turning away from Cyrus and going back over to Jackson. As soon as he got back over to the station he picked up a prototype. "Cyrus wants to talk to you now." He grunted as he powered it on. The prototype immediately made a whirring sound before it made a pop, some internal component exploding. Cryptor blinking in surprise as smoke rose off of it, he looked up at Jackson before over at Cyrus, slipping it back onto the table and pretending he never touched it. Jackson, having watched the prototype break, simply handed Cryptor the pen and clipboard.

"You fill out the appropriate form." He sighed before taking a deep breath and turned to Cyrus. Forcing a smile, he headed towards his boss, cursing his stiff posture.

"Y-yes, sir." He murmured as Cyrus looked at him with a stern stare. The employee nervously touched his face as Cyrus quirked a brow. Cyrus simply watched Jackson fidget nervously here or there. Shaking his head, Cyrus let out an annoyed sigh.

"Jackson, I'm going to ask you a few questions and I want you to answer them truthfully." Cyrus said flatly, pushing his glasses back into place. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mister Borg." Jackson said with a quick nod. The employee took another deep breath, forcing himself to gain composure. "What do you need to ask?" He questioned, sounding less nervous than before.

"Do you have any leads on who Gadgetman is?" Cyrus asked, watching Jackson for any hints of suspicious behavior. Jackson shrugged, unknowingly glancing back at Cryptor.

"I... I honestly don't." He lied, his voice a cracking a little. The employee cursed his nerves internally. "Is that all?"

"No." Cyrus said bluntly, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You've been acting strange... I think you're hiding something. Either you know who Gadgetman is or you are Gadgetman." Jackson felt his heart begin to race and his hands tremble. Nervously, Jackson began to twiddle his fingers in front of him.

"That's ridiculous! I-if I knew who Gadgetman was, don't you think I would tell you? I mean, we're friends, right? Wh-why would I lie to you?"

"Jackson, I am your boss first and your friend second." Cyrus said sternly. "You have been acting nervous. Even Cryptor has picked up on your suspicious behavior." Jackson's eyes widened in surprise, then he turned his head and shot Cryptor a harsh glare. Cryptor was going get it later. "Jackson, all I ask is that you tell me the truth." Cyrus shrugged, pulling Jackson's sleeve to get his attention again. He did not want to have to get too stern with his friend, but he would if he had to. "Are you Gadgetman?" Jackson sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Cyrus, I can assure you that I am not Gadgetman." He huffed. "You can just ask Craig. He and I watch television together every night after we make dinner. He of all people would know if I was Gadgetman or not... You gotta believe me. I'm telling the truth." Cyrus looked at Jackson with a stern, suspicious expression for a solid fifteen seconds before sighing heavily.

"And you don't know who he is either?" He asked again, just to make sure.

"I don't know anything about him." Jackson grumbled, tapping his foot on the floor in frustration.

"Fine. You are dismissed." Cyrus said with a wave of his hand. Then he turned his chair around and headed towards the door, having enough of these interrogations. Someone was lying, but he doubted he would find out whom today. Jackson turned back to his station when Cyrus was no longer in the room. With a glare fixed on the android, Jackson marched over towards him. The employee then smacked the android upside the head.

"You are a jerk, you know that?" He hissed, snatching the clipboard from Cryptor. The smack Cryptor received confused the android for a couple of seconds before he laughed, looking at Jackson smugly.

"What, you aren't Gadgetman? You've been acting pretty suspicious; I was starting to think you were." Jackson grumbled to himself, nudging Cryptor in the arm with his elbow. Then a smirked as a thought came to mind.

"No, I'm definitely not Gadgetman." Jackson said with a chuckle. "Gadgetman is way thicker than I am and I wouldn't be caught dead in such an ugly get up. Not to mention, I'm not a petty thief." Cryptor huffed, glaring at Jackson before looking away, grabbing up yet another prototype.

"There's not much choice of apparel with what's in the lost in found." He mumbled quietly, triggering it as it gave off a small spark of electricity instead of what it was supposed to do. Smirking he turned back around, quickly giving Jackson a small zap with the malfunctioning prototype, making Jackson yelp. Pulling it back he looked over the prototype. "Effective, but useless." He reported, throwing it back onto the table. Sending an annoyed glare at Cryptor, Jackson gave him a little shove. Then he looked back down at the clipboard and jotted down the problems on the form.

"But if he's so great, why couldn't he make his own gadgets, hm?" Jackson asked with a smug smirk. "He seems to dim to make his own tools, so he stole some from Cyrus. What a hero."

"Maybe he has been trying to make his own." Cryptor grumbled, shoving at the different prototypes on the table, to irritated to pick one up and test it. Jackson chuckled lightly and shook his head.

"I'm guessing he needs help if it's taken him this long to make something himself." He snickered, eyeing Cryptor with a raised brow. Cryptor huffed.

"I doubt he could get help without someone finding out."

"I dunno, if he finds the right person to help, his secret could still be safe." Jackson shrugged. The two were no longer focused on work, so he set his clipboard down. "I'm gonna take my break now." Cryptor glanced at Jackson when he mentioned taking a break. Leaving the prototypes and approaching Jackson, he grabbed Jackson's wrist tighter than was necessary and began pulling him out of the room without a word. "Hey!" Jackson barked as Cryptor pulled him by his wrist. He tried to pull his wrist free, but had no luck. "Where are you taking me?"

"To my room." Cryptor simply answered as they approached the elevator. "I want your help."

"Help? Well, all you had to do was ask." Jackson said, allowing Cryptor to pull him along. Cryptor snorted, not responding to Jackson and leading him up to the ninety ninth floor. After they had entered the elevator, Cryptor had released Jackson's wrist. Going through the hall, he got to the room and slammed the door open. Mindroid, who had been sitting by the window, looked towards the door immediately. He tilted his head when he saw that Cryptor was not alone. This had never really happened before. The only people to visit their room were Cyrus and P.I.X.A.L.

"Why is Jackson here?" He bleeped, getting up off the chair. Cryptor huffed.

"I need to talk to him." He scowled. "Now get out Mindroid."

"You can't kick me out like that." Mindroid huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Cryptor growled, stomping farther into the room.

"Yes, I can. It was my room first." He spat, picking the droid up off the ground. "I can't have you in here right now, go somewhere else." He hissed as he placed Mindroid on the ground outside of the door, before closing it on his face.

"Annoying brat." He muttered as he turned away from the door. Walking across the room he grabbed up the watch he had hidden away and placed it on the desk. "I need help with this." He huffed, crossing his arms and glaring at the watch. Jackson approached Cryptor with a raised brow. He peered at the watch for a moment before looking up at Cryptor with a confused expression.

"What do you want it to do?" He asked, not quite understanding what Cryptor wanted. Cryptor frowned, pushing at a stolen prototype on the table. They could be identified as the small orbs stolen from a while back that exploded instead of doing their intended purpose.

"I took a few of these from the testing room when I first started. I figured they could be useful, but they explode too quickly. I was trying to figure out a way to launch them at the foes faster. I thought maybe this watch from the lost in found could be used as that component, if modified in the correct way. Problem is, I'm not sure how to do that…" Jackson nodded slowing before pulling up a chair at the table. He went right to examining the watch and the spheres. He was quite for a moment as he worked out what Cryptor wanted in his head. Then he nodded again.

"If I get the right parts and tools, I think I can help." He stated, tapping his hand on the table. "I've never really tinkered with something like this, but it should be easy enough." Cryptor picked up one of the orbs, rotating it in his fingers.

"You wouldn't need to trigger any of these, would you? I have a very limited supply."

"Well, I will need to test the launching mechanism, but we can get something about the size to test with instead." Jackson explained before eyeing the pellets. "Maybe I can even make you more ammunition. Cryptor nodded at the answer, sitting the orb back down.

"It takes them 2.42 seconds to set off." He supplied the information. "That is by the manual switch, unless there is another way to activate it and extend that time. That I haven't been able to find out."

"We'll figure it out." Jackson assured the Nindroid. "Sometimes you just gotta tinker a bit before you figure things out."

The employee stood up and smiled at Cryptor. "I'm going to go fetch some tools and parts I'll need. I shouldn't be gone long." Jackson said, heading towards the door.


	16. Chapter 16

Mindroid stood at the door, glaring at it as he listened to the muffled voices that came from inside. With a huff, Mindroid stormed off towards the nearest elevator. He was sick of Cryptor and his sneaking around. He was going to report to Cyrus about all of this. Once in the elevator, Mindroid got as far from the panel of buttons as he could. Then, with a small running start, he jumped up and pressed the button for the hundredth floor. He was so use to having to jump, he no longer needed more than one or two tries before getting it. The small Nindroid was brought up to Cyrus; office shortly after that. He found Cyrus neck deep in paper work at his desk, not surprised at all by the sight. Mindroid made an annoyed beeping sound before marching over to the inventor's desk Cyrus looked down at him with a raised brow.

"Is something wrong, Mindroid?" He questioned, looking back at his work briefly. Mindroid waited until he had Cyrus' attention again before he nodded vigorously. The little android stomped his foot and began bleeping and making noises that Cyrus could not understand. "Hold on, my small friend. I'll get P.I.X.A.L. up here in a jiffy." Cyrus sighed, reaching for his communication device. He then paged P.I.X.A.L. and asked her to come to his office at the earliest convenience. After receiving the message from Cyrus, P.I.X.A.L. hurried up and finished the paperwork she was working on before heading up to his office.

"Hello, Mister Borg." She greeted upon exiting the elevator. Making a quick observation of the situation, she noticed Mindroid. "What is it you are in need of assistance for?"

"Would you mind translating for me?" Cyrus asked, motioning to the still very upset Mindroid. "He's angry about something, but uh, you know." Mindroid looked over at P.I.X.A.L., crossing his little arms over his chest.

"Cryptor kicked me out of our room." He huffed. "He keeps sneaking around and messing with things and now he's locked out with that Jackson guy in our room… Oh and can you tell Cyrus not to call me his little friend?" P.I.X.A.L. nodded, listening to Mindroid before beginning to translate.

"He's saying that Cryptor kicked him out of their room. He says that Cryptor has been sneaking around and messing with things, and has now locked Mindroid out with Jackson in the room as well." P.I.X.A.L. explained. "He also doesn't want you calling him your little friend." Pausing, P.I.X.A.L. looked up from Mindroid to Cyrus. "I too have been experiencing some strange behaviors from Cryptor as well. He's been tending to be a little jumpy whenever I approach him and will sometimes say things that have nothing to do with the topic at hand." Cyrus frowned and pushed his paperwork aside, brows furrowing and his lower lip poking out as he processed the information given to him. Unknowing my, Cyrus tapped his pen on the desk.

"What could he be doing with Jackson in his room?" The inventor pondered aloud.

"Who knows? Just make him stop." Mindroid bleeped.

"Mindroid just wants you to make him stop." P.I.X.A.L. quickly translated the short android. "Perhaps someone else may know what they are up to? Jackson and Craig are both very close, maybe he has an idea."

"I suppose it couldn't hurt to question him. Call him up here." Cyrus said, looking down at his messy desk. With a nod, P.I.X.A.L. briskly turned back for the elevator. Searching around the department Craig worked within, she soon found him, explaining to him that Cyrus wished to speak with him. Once he understood, she led him back to the elevator, re-emerging into Cyrus' office upon the hundredth floor. When Craig entered his office with P.I.X.A.L., Cyrus motioned for him to approach his desk. The employee made his way to his boss' desk with his arms behind his back.

"Yes, sir?" Craig asked, tilting his head. Cyrus moved his papers around briefly before clearing his throat. He stole a quick glance at Craig's name tag to get his surname.

"Mister Duval." He began, tapping his desk with his pen, "I would like to talk to you about the… suspicious behavior that we've noticed between your friend, Jackson Bates, and Cryptor."

"Suspicious behavior?" Craig inquired, a brow quirking as he spoke.

"Well, you see, Jackson and Cryptor have been acting off lately." Cyrus elaborated with a shrug. "Cryptor has been rather jumpy and quick to change the subject and Jackson… Well, Jackson had been very nervous and skittish. Now they're locked up in Cryptor's room… Do you have any idea what's been going on or why they might be acting so strange?" Craig was quiet for a moment. Of course he knew why they were acting off, but he had promised not to spill the beans. He had to come up with something.

"Oh… Well. I'm not sure about Cryptor, but Jackson… he's been nervous about asking you… for some time off." Craig said, lying off the bat. "And as for locking themselves in Cryptor's room, they probably just want to spend time alone." Cyrus was quiet for a moment as he thought about Craig's words. Then with a shrug, he dismissed the thought of Cryptor and Jackson being up to something.

"You may go back to work now. Thank you for your time, Mister Duval." Cyrus said, waving his hand. Craig nodded and turned to leave, internally celebrating his success. When Craig was gone, Cyrus looked own at Mindroid, who had been standing at his side the entire time. "I'm sorry for the delay. I will certainly have a word with Cryptor about his rude behavior." Cyrus stated.

"That's it? You'll just have a word with him? I want results!" Mindroid huffed, stamping his foot angrily. "When you just talk to him, it changes nothing. He laughs and continues to treat me like I'm below him! I want action. Like when he ripped my arm off." Cyrus frowned and looked over at P.I.X.A.L., who had frowned at Mindroid's words.

"Would you mind translating that?"

"Mindroid, I don't believe that should be necessary." She turned to look at Cyrus. "He's saying that he wants you to take action, that when you just have a word with Cryptor it does nothing. He doesn't believe that just talking to him is enough, and believes he needs some sort of punishment, like when he ripped his arm off." Cyrus looked down at Mindroid with a raised brow and a frown.

"Mindroid, all he did was lock you out of the room." Cyrus said sternly. "He did not harm you in any way. Be reasonable. We will have a word with him, but I'm not going to punish him for something so small." Mindroid groaned, turning to the elevator.

"He always does this when he messes on that stupid watch of his." Mindroid beeped at a low volume. Then he stormed off towards the elevator. "Who does he think he is? He hardly uses the room because he's out all night." The small android got in the elevator and waited for the other two, arms crossed and his foot tapping impatiently on the ground. Cyrus, who was waiting to hear P.I.X.A.L.'s translation, steered himself out from behind his desk and towards the elevator himself. He was not appreciative of Mindroid's bad attitude, but he had a feeling there was a reason for it. He would have to have a word with the smaller android later.


	17. Chapter 17

A month. It had been a month since Jackson had gone missing. Jackson just disappeared from work one day without a word of where he was going. At first, Cryptor just thought he had gone on a break, but after the first week, he knew that wasn't the case. Without being told where he had gone, and being unable to ask Craig for the answer, Cryptor was left in the dark. Without Jackson at work, Cryptor stopped working in the testing room, sitting in his own room with nothing to do. Every day, two or three times, Cryptor would pop into the testing room, hoping that Jackson may have returned only to be disappointed. Thirty-three days after Jackson had left unannounced, Cryptor entered the testing room for the second time that day, once again in hopes of Jackson's return. This time however, was different. Instead of finding a missing employee, he found none were absent. The familiar employee and friend was back, working at his station as usual. Narrowing his eyes at the sight, still yet to be noticed by the raven-haired man, Cryptor began to growl.

"JACKSON!" Cryptor roared, bursting into a sprint at the employee. Quickly reaching him, Cryptor tackled the employee, pinning him with his arms behind his back and pressed to the ground under Cryptor's weight. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, IDIOT! THIRTY-THREE DAYS! YOU'VE BEEN GONE FOR THIRTY-THREE DAYS AND DIDN'T GIVE ME ANY WARNING TO WHERE YOU WENT!" The entire testing room went quiet as the scene unfolded. Jackson, who was still shocked by the attack, took a moment before beginning to struggle. Cryptor had impressive strength, so he was ultimately unable to free himself.

"Cryptor, get off of me!" He barked, still squirming beneath the heavier metal form. "I can explain, just let me go." Jackson's response only irritated Cryptor more. Shaking Jackson a little, he pressed him further to the ground.

"Where have you been." He growled through gritted teeth, still refusing to get off of the employee and release him. Jackson's squirming ceased and he let out a very annoyed sigh.

"I was on a personal leave for a while." Jackson answered with a flat tone. "I would have been back sooner, but I ended up having some personal matters to attend to. There, I told you. Now get off." Cryptor frowned, lightening up on his grip a little and not pressing him quite so hard to the ground anymore. Jackson shrugged with relief when Cryptor eased up on him. His relief was short lived when he realized that Cryptor would not be letting go of him.

"Why didn't you let me know?" he questioned the employee. With a huff, Jackson yanked his right arm free from the Nindroid's grasp.

"Get off of me already." He hissed. The moment Jackson's arm broke free, Cryptor immediately pressed down even harder on the employee. Quickly moving into a new position, Cryptor pressed on his neck and held the employees head with his other hand. Applying pressure to the neck, Cryptor threatened to snap Jackson's neck the moment he tried to struggle again.

"Answer my question." He growled. Jackson gasped as Cryptor threatened to snap his neck. A few other employees gasped as well. Jackson did no dare to struggle again.

"I didn't know that it would be a big deal." Jackson answered immediately. "I didn't realize you would miss me, Cryptor. I should have told you. I'm sorry." Cryptor narrowed his eye, glaring at Jackson with annoyance. Grumbling, he released Jackson's head and finally stood up off of him.

"Why would I miss someone as stupid as you?" He huffed. Jackson sighed as he was finally let go. He quickly got to his feet, dusting himself off before feeling his neck. Then he looked around at his coworkers. They all slowly went back to work all through there was still a hint of awkwardness in the air. Jackson grumbled, crossing his arms as he looked back at Cryptor.

"Of course you missed me. Why else would you make such a big scene over me being gone for so long?" The employee retorted. Cryptor huffed, looking away and crossing his arms.

"I didn't miss you. It's just boring around here when you're not. There's nothing to do."

"Cryptor, that is pretty much what missing me means." Jackson scoffed, giving the android a gentle shove. "You missed having me around to keep you busy, admit it." Cryptor grumbled, growing increasingly annoyed.

"Whatever." He grunted, eyes grazing over the different prototypes across the table. Jackson shook his head and rolled his eyes, joining Cryptor at their work station. He picked up his clipboard and the forms for the day. He then clicked his pen and waited for Cryptor to pick something to test.

"You know, you didn't have to try to kill me." He murmured, glancing at his coworkers down the line. He was not surprised when he caught one staring at him. "I would have told you if you had asked regardless."

"Tch." Cryptor tisked, picking up a prototype. "I asked, you didn't answer."

"You tackled me and pinned me to the ground. Of course I didn't answer you." Jackson retorted, flipping to the appropriate form for the prototype Cryptor picked up. "If it makes any difference, I promise I won't leave for so long without letting you know." Cryptor huffed, looking the prototype over for any damages before testing it.

"I would suggest you do that unless you want me to break your neck."

"You wouldn't break my neck, Cryptor. I'm your best friend and what good am I to you dead." Jackson teased. He trusted Cryptor enough to know that he would not harm him seriously. Though being tackled did not feel great. Cryptor grumbled, finally beginning to test the prototype, but not finding anything wrong with it.

"I doubt the action would do any good for my future either." If he had killed Jackson, or anyone for that matter, he would surely be deactivated permanently on spot.

"And would you really kill me for being gone only a month?" Jackson snickered, nudging Cryptor with his elbow. "Unless you really did miss me that much." Cryptor growled, thrusting the perfectly working prototype at Jackson, or use to be perfectly working. In the process of shoving the object at the employee, Cryptor ended up crushing it and snapping it. Frowning at what he did to it, he grumbled, tossing the broken pieces at Jackson before turning to grab another one.

"Consider that you neck." He grunted, referring to the prototype he had just demolished.

"Hey." Jackson growled, glaring at Cryptor. Rather than picking up the broken prototype, he simply filled out the form with furrowed brows and frowned. "You know, since you started working with me, they've added a 'Cryptor broke it' box to all the forms." Cryptor frowned, quickly turning around and ripping the clipboard away from Jackson, beginning to write on it. Handing it back, there was an added line in the notes section reading as, _"Jackson is a complete and utter idiot and is completely incapable of testing even the most basic of prototypes. He's more interested in making fun of Cryptor than making observations of what's wrong with the prototypes."_ Jackson stared at the clipboard with a deadpan look for a moment before looking back up at Cryptor. He opened his mouth to retort, but stopped himself. The employee set the clipboard down and sighed heavily.

"Look, I'm sorry about leaving without telling you and I'm sorry for teasing you." Jackson replied, trying his best to sound genuine. "Can we just put it behind us and move on?" Cryptor stayed silent as he fiddled with a prototype once again. He could have cared less if Jackson had apologized or not, he just wanted him to shut up. The prototype he now held was inconsistent in how it worked, either it would cut short or work perfectly fine. Testing the prototype a couple more times just to confirm the issue, he set it aside.

"This prototype is inconsistent." He reported to Jackson, not answering the employee's question. Jackson merely sighed at Cryptor's lack of response. The android never changed. With a slow shake of the head, Jackson jotted down what Cryptor said.

"Next."


	18. Chapter 18

The day started out like any other for Cyrus. He woke up, got dressed, ate something, and headed out. When he arrived at the tower however, Cyrus was greeted by a rather large crowd around the front steps. Confused by the large mob of people, Cyrus made his way through. There had to be some reason for the citizens to gather. When Cyrus made it to the front, he saw exactly why they had gathered.

On the front steps of the tower laid a broken, unmasked Gadgetman. Cyrus was appalled to see that Gadgetman was indeed Cryptor. Cyrus choked back a gasp as he took in Cryptor's condition. Cryptor was missing the right half of his face and part of his right arm. He had obviously been damaged in an explosion.

The inventor was soon joined by his employee, Jackson. The younger man shared the same feeling of distress and shock. "Cryptor…" Jackson murmured under his breath, wishing what he saw was not real.

"Jackson, grab him and bring him inside quickly." Cyrus urged, drying his damp eyelids. The inventor turned to the crowd as Jackson careful dragged Cryptor inside. "There is nothing to see here. Disband and continue on with your day."

Before the crowd could question him, Cyrus zipped inside the tower and called for some help getting Cryptor to the lab. A few employees helped Jackson carry the damaged android to the nearest elevator. Once they arrived at the lab, Cryptor was laid out and everyone but Jackson was dismissed. Without delay, Cyrus began to assess the damage done to his creation's body, hoping he could be saved. Much to Cyrus' distress, Cryptor's body was far more damaged than it appeared to be. The damage seemed too severe to simply repair like that. Growing more and more worried for his creation's well-being, Cyrus quickly connected Cryptor to the computer. He desperately prayed that Cryptor's processor still worked and that his AI was not lost. Cyrus quickly uploaded the AI into the computer and pulled up the chat log Cryptor usually spoke with.

~Cryptor, Are you there?

~If you can read this, speak to me.

~Cryptor?

~Please answer me.

~Please.

"Do you think he's... gone?" Jackson asked as he watched Cyrus grow more frustrated, a slight catch in his voice when he spoke.

"I don't know, Jackson." The inventor said, drying his eyes again. "He's not responding... I-I can't tell if he's there or not." Jackson frowned and placed a hand on Cyrus' shoulder.

"I wonder how this happened to him…" The employee murmured, watching the screen. Cyrus' posture perked up when he heard what Jackson had said. Quickly, the inventor began typing and pulled up a specific program.

"We can find out what happened." Cyrus narrated with a sniffle. "We can replay his memories because he records everything he sees." Followed by a few more clicks, Cyrus collected the code from overnight, beginning to replay the video feed.

* * *

><p>Cryptor zipped across building tops as the unknown persona of Gadgetman for several hours. The night seemed to be very inactive and there wasn't anything to intervene with. Eventually he hopped onto a building and heard the sound of some group of men sneering at a woman begging for mercy. Without hesitation he dropped down to get the attention of the group of five.<p>

Rather easily he fought them off and allowed the girl to escape before he decided to pull out his newest prototype he had taken to test it on the field for the first time. Aiming the gun at the gang he triggered it, but was unresponsive. Cryptor frowned and looked at the gun, disappointed that it didn't work. The five gang members all took notice of the faulty weapon and the distraction it gave Gadgetman and took the opportunity to flee. As Cryptor looked over the weapon, he suddenly felt it click in his hand. Before he could drop it, it exploded, blasting off a good portion of his face and his hand entirely. Dizzy for a moment, he shook his head to clear it as he heard a girl shriek, hearing her phone click as she dialed a number. Presumably she was the woman he had saved and had hidden around the corner just to watch Gadgetman. Quickly glancing at her, she gawked, completely dumbfounded how he was still standing after reviving a blow that should have killed someone. Quickly, Cryptor fled back to the building top, the girl crying for him to stop.

Given his current position in the city, he knew he was too far from Jackson's home to go to him for help and was closer to the tower. With a frown he decided that's where he needed to go. Guess it was time for Cyrus to find out.

Hopping across building half blind and critically damaged, he slowly felt himself tire out, the damage causing him to leak power. Making it to the tower at a point he was struggling to keep upright, he approached the stairs, trying to get in to hide himself within it before he blacked out and collapsed near the entrance of the tower.

* * *

><p>The video coming to an end, the computer stood still for several moments, no one touching it. For several minutes nothing happened before the chat box popped up over the videos window.<p>

- That was strange...

- You know, I don't particularly like having to re-watch a moment of my life.

- Especially one as unpleasant as that.

Cryptor having finally spoken on the computer finally announced he had regained consciousness. It took a bit longer than normal for Cryptor's mind to come to life again, but when he had the video had just started and he had decided to stay silent as it played through. Jackson and Cyrus were both caught off guard by Cryptor's sudden responses. The two exchanged elated looks, grinning from ear to ear. Both were clearly happy and relieved that Cryptor had not been wiped out or damaged. In the spur of the moment, the duo embraced each other, celebrating Cryptor's survival.

"He alive!" Jackson cheered, giving Cyrus a squeeze. Then, when they realized what they were doing, Cyrus and Jackson let go of each other. Cyrus laughed lightly, drying his eyes yet again. He then began to type, responding to Cryptor.

~Sorry about that. We wanted to know what had happened to you since you weren't responding.

~We were worried we lost you for good for a moment there, Cryptor.

Cryptor stared at the messages for a couple of moments before responding.

-I would certainly hope not.

-That would suck.

-I would hate to have that happen to me again.

Cryptor paused after speaking, finally asking what had been pressing on his mind.

-What happened after I powered out?

-Why have I been placed into the computer?

Cyrus' happy smile faded upon reading Cryptor's question. He glanced back at Cryptor's damaged body. With a sad expression, Cyrus turned back to the computer and began to type.

~I regret to inform you that your body has been severely damaged.

~Half of you face is missing and so is your right arm.

~There still may be more damaged that we cannot see.

~Jackson and I fear that your body may be too damaged to repair.

Cryptor remained silent for many more moments after receiving the news. Unsure how to react or what to do about the situation, he simply stayed silent as he tried to figure out what to do.

-Will you be able to fix me or not?

Jackson and Cyrus exchanged glances again. They were silent for a few moments before responding again.

~At this point in time, we are unsure if fixing your body is possible.

~I promise we will try our best, but, if your body is not salvageable, we will construct a new body for you.

~If it comes to it, I can make the new body look how you use to.

Cryptor just got more frustrated with the topic as the conversation went out.

-I don't want a new body, I want my body!

Cryptor growled, the computer letting out a buzz as the result.

-What am I supposed to do?

-Sit in here and just wait for you to tell me my body is garbage?

Cyrus closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He did not want to leave Cryptor in the computer, but he had no idea how long it would take to get Cryptor a functional body. He had no doubt that Cryptor would grow furious with the situation if stuck in the computer too long. There had to be another way. Then, suddenly, an idea donned on the inventor. He smiled wide and perked up, beginning to type again.

~While it may take some time to get you a functional body, I think I have a place we could put you that isn't so limited like this computer.

~I can put you in the Digiverse.

Cryptor once again remained silent, having no idea what Cyrus was talking about. It took him a while before he finally decided to question it.

-Digiverse?

~All of the computers in the tower are connected by one large program I wrote myself.

~I call it the Digiverse.

~It's like a video game in a way, but it's only partially developed.

~You'll be able to roam around a digital version of the tower while you wait for a functional body.

Cryptor looked at the messages, thinking them over.

-That sounds like it would be empty.

Cyrus shrugged and fixed his glasses. He glanced up at Jackson for a moment, seeing that he was focusing on their conversation.

~It would be, but it's better than staying in this computer.

~However, you can do whatever you want there.

~Run around, walk up vertical walls, whatever your can imagine.

~So, what do you say?

~Do you want to enter the Digiverse?


	19. Chapter 19

Cryptor had agreed to enter the Digiverse during the time his body was being repaired. Cyrus immediately began preparing to download Cryptor into the systems. He had to move Cryptor's AI to the computer in his office first before he could put Cryptor into the Digiverse.

Once everything was prepared, Cyrus began downloading Cryptor. The process was rather quick. Cryptor was downloaded soon enough. Once Cyrus was sure that he was there, he contacted Cryptor.

"Did you get there safely?" Cyrus asked through a communication device. Entering the Digiverse, the digital code immediately caught the digitalized Nindroid's attention. For several moments there was just silence before Cyrus' voice sounded from above, looking up for the unknown source of his voice.

"Yes, I believe so…" Cryptor answered him, taking a step and watching the code change beneath his feet.

"That's good." Cyrus said with a smile. "You can explore and keep yourself entertained while we work." Jackson, who had stayed by Cyrus' side the entire time they downloaded Cryptor into the systems, cleared his throat.

"So, what's it like in there, Cryptor?" He asked. Cryptor frowned at the question, walking over to a counter and running his hand a long it, testing how everything worked.

"Boring." He answered Jackson, walking up to a computer monitor and holding it with both hands as he examined it. "Interesting but boring."

"I'm still not sure how long you'll have to be in there, so I suggest you make the best of it." Cyrus sighed. "Jackson and I have to get to work if we're going to figure out what we have to do."

"We should get to it then." Jackson sighed. Cryptor sighed, going to move away from the monitor, grazing his fingers over it as he left, but quickly stopped, turning back to the monitor. Tracing his fingers over the screen again, he watched the code move a little differently than the rest of it as well as feel different underneath. Cryptor frowned moving away and looking at it from afar, the screen looking normal again.

"Why is the code here different than the rest of it?" He questioned before approaching it again and inspecting it further.

"Different?" Cyrus questioned, brow raised. "What do you mean?"

"Different how?" Jackson added. Cryptor frowned, trailing his fingers over it again.

"It moves different." He responded, watching it ripple under his fingertips. "A bit like liquid I guess, like I can… Hold on." Taking his hand, he pressed on the monitor a bit, his hand turning into code itself on the other side. Moving his hand, he pulled it back, inspecting it over. Furrowing his brow, he took both hands, sticking them into the frame and pressing on the sides, then somehow, managing to squeeze into the small screen.

After he got in, Cryptor was very disoriented, looking back to see a liquid like wall like he had squeezed through. Looking forward, he saw the entire room he had just been in, but instead of like the Digiverse, it was normal, although this time there was two figures standing in it. Cyrus and Jackson.

"Oh." He simply said, his voice echoing out of every speaker in the room. Staring at Jackson's and Cyrus' backs he frowned, looking to the edge of the box before moving over to it. Getting near the edge, he de-materialized and reassembled in the screen next to it. He frowned further, looking at himself before looking around the room through the glass wall. "This is strange." He mumbled, hopping to yet another screen. While Cryptor hopped from screen to screen, Cyrus and Jackson stayed still. Both were clearly confused until Jackson spotted Cryptor on one of the screens. The employee pointed it out to Cyrus and they both stared, clearly baffled by the sight.

"Cryptor, what are you doing on the screen?" Jackson asked.

"I believe he found a way to enter technological devices within the tower." Cyrus marveled. The inventor paused and pondered, his chin resting between his thumb and index. "Every computer in this tower is connected, which is why the Digiverse exists." Cyrus explained. "Since every computer is connected, it makes sense that an AI would be able to move around freely. It may by possible that, from within the Digiverse, Cryptor could even control anything within the tower." Cryptor listened to Cyrus speak, momentarily stopping his hop from screen to screen.

"Could I?" He questioned Cyrus' words, looking around the computer space he was in before looking over at Cyrus and Jackson. Quickly hopping across the screens, he got to one near the duo. Looking at the two he frowned. Searching around the box, he found nothing different from the others before going to hop to another.

Once he got to the next screen, the angle was different than the other screens he had been in. Looking around he saw Jackson, then looking down and seeing the legs of Cyrus' chair. With a frown at the sight, one of the front legs lifted up a little, tapping itself on the ground. Smirking at the action, Cryptor realized he was the cause of the small movement, realizing the space felt different from the other screens. Looking at Jackson, the chair then took a couple of quick steps backwards. "This is turning out to be a lot better than the Digiverse was originally made out to be." He laughed. "Having this many legs is weird."

Cyrus was surprised to say the least. He looked down at his chair in alarm when it backed up on its own. "Cr-Cryptor, leave my chair be." The inventor commanded, trying to sound firm. Jackson, who had turned towards the chair when it backed up, stepped forward. He was ready to grab the chair if necessary.

"Leave Cyrus alone, Cryptor." Jackson warned. Cryptor smirked at the scene, clicking the legs of the chair on the floor as he shifted a bit.

"I like the chair better than those computers." He dictated, quickly backing up a couple more steps before bumping into something, quickly pivoting to see what it was.

"Cryptor, stop." Cyrus demanded. He held the handles of this chair and attempted to steer the chair. Unfortunately, Cryptor had full control. "This isn't a toy."

"Listen to Cyrus." Jackson tried, stepped a little closer. The employee then lunged at the chair, hoping to grab it before Cryptor could run off. As soon as Jackson lunged and grabbed hold, the chair stumbled, near collapsing to the ground. Immediately, Cryptor tried to stand back up, but the added weight of two people didn't make the task easy.

"I know it's not a toy." He grunted, trying to stand up and pull away before he decided to try and kick Jackson off. "But it enables me to move around." Jackson held on tight and tried his best to keep the cybernetic legs in one place. The kicking made his efforts harder.

"Leave the chair, Cryptor." Jackson grunted, struggling to keep Cryptor from running off with Cyrus. The whole time Jackson and Cryptor wrestled, Cyrus was jostled and thrown around. The inventor continued his efforts in stopping Cryptor, but they were in vain. Cyrus could not help but feel that his decision to put Cryptor in the Digiverse was a huge mistake. Had Cryptor been in his own body, he would have easily won the match, but the chair wasn't nearly as strong as he was and was left with no other choice but to give up. Giving Cyrus back the control of the chair, Cryptor glared at Jackson through the screen.

"Fine." He huffed before hopping to a different screen. With a frown he looked around the room before smirking. "I'm going to go explore." He announced before vanishing from all screens in the room and traveled to the floor below. Cryptor continued to smile as he hopped from room to room through the technology. Having made his way down a couple of floors, Cryptor watched the hall through one of the security cameras before seeing a familiar short android round the corner at the end. Smirking even more at his presence, Cryptor grinned, holding his laughter in as Mindroid made his way down the hall, waiting for Mindroid to get into range before hopping into the small droid.

As soon as Cryptor entered the other droid, Mindroid immediately stiffened up for a couple of moments as Cryptor's mind came into control. Once Cryptor was in possession of the body, he relaxed it, shaking his head to get out of the tense state. Holding his arms up, he examined his hands, moving the fingers as he looked at them.

"Funny how this feels different when I'm an uninvited guest." He observed, dropping his arms and bouncing up and down on the balls of his toes. Grinning behind the mask, Cryptor crossed his arms behind his back, looking behind him and in front, looking to see if anyone was around watching him. Seeing no one, he dropped his arms to his sides and swung them in motion with his feet's rather large and playful steps as he continued on down the hall.

Immediately upon Cryptor leaving, Cyrus and Jackson decided it was best to find Cryptor and get him to stop messing around. The duo split up to try to find Cryptor as soon as possible. There were over one hundred floors he could be on, so there was no time to waste. Cyrus began his search on the ninety ninth floor while Jackson checked the one below. Jackson's search moved on before Cyrus and he went down to the ninety sixth floor. There he bumped into Mindroid.

"Hey, Min, I need your help." Jackson said, checking the room on his right for Cryptor. Cryptor smirked looking up at him when bumped into. "We've got a big problem." Deciding to play along with Jackson, Cryptor tipped his head, acting confused.

"Problem?" He asked, regardless if Jackson was able to understand him or not. Jackson looked back at the small bot and sighed.

"We put Cryptor in the computers and now he can control whatever he wants." The employee explained, checking the room to his left. "He can hop from computer to computer." Cryptor frowned, leaning to try and look into the room Jackson just looked in.

"Put him in the computers?" Cryptor looked back up at Jackson confused, acting like he had no idea what he was talking about.

"Beep if you see him on a monitor or something." Jackson said as he continued down the hall. "Come on, we'll search together." Cryptor frowned, growing bored with the situation and wanting to go off and make Mindroid do things he shouldn't be, but ended up following after Jackson to keep from raising suspicion. Trudging behind Jackson, Cryptor would occasionally look into a room, pretending to be searching for 'Cryptor.' Looking up at Jackson, Cryptor smirked, leaving Jackson and quickly slipping into a room as they passed, looking around the room, hoping to find something to use in a prank against Jackson. Jackson continued on a bit before noticing that the small droid had vanished. The employee raised a brow as he back tracked, checking each room for the little robot. It had not donned on him before, but it was entirely possible that Mindroid was being controlled by Cryptor.

"Hey Mindroid?" He called semi-cautiously. "You should be careful, that mean ol' Cryptor could take advantage of your technological form." Just then, Jackson found the room the other had vanished into. The employee stood in the doorway, ready to catch the smaller bot if necessary. Cryptor jumped at Jackson's voice, turning to look at him sheepishly. It was only a matter of time before Jackson thought of him being Cryptor. Shifting a look at a screen in the room, he pointed at it.

"I think I saw him." He ended up trying, hoping to keep up the charade a little longer. Jackson glanced at the screen briefly. When he saw no sign of Cryptor, he looked back down at Mindroid.

"So, you saw him, hmm?" He questioned with a blatant suspicion in his tone. "Did he run away like a coward?" Cryptor frowned, looking from the screen to Jackson and shrugging to answer the employee. Jackson sighed and put his hands on his hips.

"I can't wait until we put him back in that tin-can he calls a body." The employee shrugged.

"I am not a tin-can!" Cryptor quickly spat as he clenched his fist and stomped his foot without much thought. Pausing after he shouted, Cryptor frowned, realizing he just let his cover slip. Regardless of the fact Jackson couldn't understand him, it was quite obvious he was indeed Cryptor.

"Figured you were Cryptor." Jackson scoffed. "C'mon. Cyrus would like a word with you, mister." He added as he took a step forward, still ready to grab the other. Cryptor grumbled, crossing his arms as he glared at Jackson. Knowing well that he was planning on catching him, he looked around Jackson to look for a way out of the situation, but remain in Mindroid. Seeing an opening, he made a dash for it and into the hall. Jackson did not have reflexes like Cryptor, but reacted as fast as he could. He bolted out of the room and after the small droid. Jackson was determined to catch Cryptor, but he was almost certain that he would move to some other device as soon as he was caught.

Jackson was about to catch up with the possessed Mindroid, but Cryptor was very evasive. He was desperate to catch the android, so he took a chance and leaped for Cryptor. As he fled from Jackson, he quickly swerved out of the way when the employee dove at him. Hearing Jackson fall to the ground, Cryptor smirked, laughing a bit as he glanced back at him. Taking his gaze off of where he was going though was a mistake. Just before he went to turn to look where he was going he ran into something hard, stumbling back and falling from the collision. Shaking his head and looking up, he saw Cyrus looking down at him. Cyrus, who looked at the small android with an inquisitive look, reached down and snagged him by his arm. He had a feeling that Mindroid was not quite himself at the moment. Clearing his throat, he held the smaller Nindroid up in front of him.

"I assume you're Cryptor at the moment." Cyrus said, glancing at Jackson as he approached them.

"Yep." The employee chimed in, holding out a thumbs-up. Cryptor frowned when he got picked up, glaring at Cyrus. Then without warning, he jumped out of Mindroid and back into Cyrus' chair, shifting the chair a bit as he took control.

"You both are going to make my time in the Digiverse here miserable aren't you?" Cyrus sighed as he watched Mindroid regain control of his body. The little android soon began looking around, clearly confused, and Cyrus set him carefully on the ground. Then, with a slow shake of his head, Cyrus pushed his glasses back into place.

"Cryptor, we just want to make sure you don't... get carried away." Cyrus explained, looking down at his chair.

"You can't run amuck, buddy." Jackson added, crossing his arms. Mindroid, who was still very confused, looked at the digitized version of Cryptor on the chair screen. He tilted his head and beeped a bit, not really saying anything. The small android then glanced at both Jackson and Cyrus before pointing at Cryptor.

"Why is Cryptor on the screen?" Mindroid asked, though he knew they would not understand.

"Mindroid, Cryptor's body got destroyed." Cyrus explained, not really needing to know exactly what Mindroid had said. "Because we don't happen to have a spare body just lying around, we put him in the Digiverse." Mindroid was quiet for a moment before laughing, which sounded more like beeps.

"So, big, tough Cryptor got himself destroyed?" The small android teased. "I wish I could say it's a surprise." Cryptor frowned at Mindroid, glaring at him through the screen.

"Believe me, toaster brain," Cryptor snarled at him, "but I would rather not be in this stupid place. If that thing hadn't gone and exploded in my face I would be perfectly fine." Mindroid just shook his head and put his hands to his hips.

"You should have seen it coming, using unstable prototypes like that." The small android bit back. "The way I see it, you brought it upon yourself and deserve to be in there. I'd even say that you deserve to be in that hall of failures that Pixal told me about."

"I don't belong in the hall of failures you piece of trash!" Cryptor spat, thrusting the screen of the chair into the short androids face, forgetting about the paraplegic inventor seated on it.

"Watch it!" Cyrus barked, having been tossed back carelessly. He looked down at Mindroid with a disappointed expression. "You two need to stop your pointless fighting. I'm getting tired of it." Mindroid huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Fine." He said, which came out not as beeps, but an actual voice.

"You run along then, Mindroid." Cyrus said, making a shooing motion with his hand. "Jackson and I have work to do." Without another word, Mindroid turned and marched off in the opposite direction. He did not want to be near Cryptor anyhow.

"Cryptor, would you like to oversee the analysis of your body, or would you prefer to explore?" Cyrus asked. He secretly hoped that Cryptor would stay with him and Jackson rather than run amuck throughout the whole tower. He doubted Cryptor would stay with them, but it was worth a shot. Cryptor grumbled, slowly straightening out the chair for Cyrus after he started to calm down.

"I'll be in the Digiverse." He mumbled before disappearing from the screen and once again returning to the digital tower.


	20. Chapter 20

It had been about ten days since Cryptor had been put in the Digiverse. Since then, little work got done. Cryptor took to harassing Jackson and Cyrus as well as a few others. His bullying and teasing often got in the way, but there was little they could do. Despite Cryptor's interference, Cyrus was able to assess the damage done to his body and plot out a course of action. There was a lot more damage done than what was visible on the surface, but not enough to have to rebuild him entirely. Cryptor's body would have been repaired within two weeks, but they were incredibly behind schedule already. Coupled with Cryptor's shenanigans, Cyrus also had to deal with the rising publicity. Word of Cryptor's reveal had spread throughout the entire city and conflicting public opinions arose. Many claimed that Cryptor should be shut down like previously demanded; some said that Cryptor should continue to be online, but most were undecided.

Cyrus had to juggle overseeing Cryptor's repairs, dealing with protesters, shooing off reporters, and keeping Cryptor from terrorizing the entire tower. With so much on his plate, Cyrus began to slip up with his usual duties around the tower. Pixal was left with most of Cyrus' work as a result.

Today was particularly stressful. Cyrus, who had just left an interview, hurried up to the lab. Before he could even enter, Cyrus was flagged down by an employee. Said employee reported that Cryptor was causing trouble in the testing room. With a sigh, he closed the lab and headed down to the testing room, dreading what he would see when he arrived. Within the testing room, saying Cryptor was causing trouble was an understatement. The longer the android's AI stayed in the Digiverse, the more he learned to do. It was just a couple of days ago that he had learned about the arms up in the ceilings throughout the tower, and since he had learned to control multiple machines at once, the newly discovered tech was used to cause much chaos.

Within the testing room, Cryptor had himself displayed on the large screen in the room, looking at an employee he had lifted up off the ground and up to the ceiling. As he mocked Jackson suspended in the air, he had also activated several prototypes in the room, using them to terrorize the employees for his own entertainment purposes simultaneously. Jackson, who was becoming increasingly more angry by the second, struggled in the grasp of the mechanical arms.

"Put me down." He demanded, ignoring Cryptor's petty insults and annoying jabs. "You need to stop causing so much trouble." It was then that Cyrus entered the testing room, immediately appalled by what he saw.

"Cryptor!" He barked, glaring up at the large screen. "You need to stop this tomfoolery at once. You are not to harass innocent civilians, remember?" Cyrus' shout surprised Cryptor, making all prototypes turn back off and making him near drop Jackson. Frowning once he recollected himself, he grumbled, glaring at Cyrus as he slowly lowered Jackson back to the ground.

"There's nothing entertaining to do in here." He huffed, taking one arm from the ceiling and poking at Cyrus with it. "Would you rather I re-organize your office space?" Cyrus raised a brow and tilted his head. He knew better than to think that Cryptor would do something nice by reorganizing. He would probably wreck everything or something.

"You better not." Cyrus replied. "With all of these pranks and disruptions, it's a miracle we've even managed to get started on your repairs. I suggest you settle down or you may be trapped in that Digital world forever."

Cryptor grumbled, hopping off the main screen to a smaller one. He didn't want to be stuck in the Digiverse forever, regardless of how much he could do in it. With a smirk, he looked at Cyrus smugly as he retracted the one remaining arm back up to the ceiling. "I guess it's too bad I already did." He laughed, fleeing the room before Cyrus could say anything.

"You didn't." Cyrus gasped before bolting off towards the elevator.

Once at his office, Cyrus looked around to see what had been done. To his surprise, he saw nothing. Everything in his office appeared to be gone. Cyrus entered further, looking everywhere for any sign of anything. Then, after looking up, he spotted where Cryptor put his things.

That troublesome AI had bolted everything to the ceiling. Overwhelmed by the sight, Cyrus visibility tensed up. His hands clenched the handles of his chair. Then the inventor screamed with his mouth closed, which muffled it, and his face turned red.

He was absolutely livid.

During the time Cyrus had vanished into his upside down office, Pixal and some other employees had a couple of protesters against Cryptor in the lobby causing trouble. After a bit they all together managed to calm the group down and get them to leave. Going to the lab to try and find Cyrus, where he could often be found as of late making Cryptor's new body, found him absent for her to report to. Taking a second guess, she went up to his office to find the fuming inventor. Her arrival to the room went unnoticed, but the sight of it empty confused her. Looking at Cyrus to see him looking up, she looked up as well to see the flipped office. Staring at it for a couple of moments, she walked up next to Cyrus.

"He's overdone it this time hasn't he?" Cyrus looked back at Pixal when she spoke, his body trembling from his rage. He shook his head and glared back up at the ceiling.

"No, he over did it when he dangled me from the ceiling." Cyrus hissed. "He over did it when he halted the assembly lines. He over did it when he harassed my employees in the testing room. He over did it when he put the entire building on lockdown. He's just pressing his luck now." Pixal sighed, shaking her head.

"He has been quite troublesome." She agreed with him. "He's tried tricking me a couple of times with Mindroid, although I can't say he's particularly good at acting. I guess it's rather fortunate he can only cause chaos here in the tower. I can't imagine how bad it would be if he had reign over the entire city like you have been planning to do with the Digiverse."

"Don't even joke about that." Cyrus sighed in irritation. He shook his head and turned back towards the elevator. "I need to find him and have a word with him... then… then I'll punish him for his horrible behavior." The inventor steered himself to the elevator doors but stopped himself. "Pixal, did you need something before I run off?" He asked, looking back at her. He had tried his best not to sound snippy, but his tone still came out sounding upset.

"I just came to inform you of the small group of protesters in the lobby. They have been dealt with, but I thought you should know." Pixal answered him with a nod.

"Thank you, Pixal." Cyrus sighed, pressing the elevator button. "You may return to the lobby until further notice. I will need your help with Cryptor's body after I deal with Cryptor himself."

Following orders, Pixal returned to the lobby, having her own personal reasons to be there as well. For the past couple of weeks, she had been expecting a visit from someone. For over a year now, Pixal had been meeting with the white ninja of ice, Zane.

In truth, if it weren't for Cryptor, the two probably would have never met. After Pixal had repaired him, Zane was sent off on his way, but when he returned again just to see her, they had begun to regularly meet. A couple of weeks ago, Zane had told her he would be returning on this date.

Although this time was a little different, Pixal was anxious. She was concerned deeply of this meeting, afraid of Cryptor finding out. Cryptor had yet to be informed of their meetings, and she hoped he never would. Cryptor was never very fond of Zane, and she doubted he ever would.

As the white Nindroid had stated, he arrived at the exact time he had given, easily locating Pixal and approaching her.

"Hello Pixal." He had greeted her with an almost fake smile. The atmosphere between the two was different, awkward and tense. He had obviously heard of Cryptor's reactivation.

"Hello Zane." She greeted back. The two had remained silent for several moments, Pixal taking a pretty accurate guess of what was on his mind. It took a while for him to confirm her hypothesis.

"How long has he been reactivated?" He asked making Pixal sigh.

"Almost a year now." She answered. "I would have informed you, but Mister Borg specifically stated not to tell anyone. Unfortunately you qualify in that group as well." Zane nodded, clearly remembering the only time he had met Cryptor.

"I understand."

"I don't think now is a very good time for us to meet." Pixal sighed. "With his current condition, I'm afraid what he'll do to you once he finds out you are here." Zane frowned.

"Should we meet again then a week from now at the same time?" He inquired.

"I'm not sure how long it will be until the tower is safe again. The time should be fine, but I'd have to see if I can get permission from Cyrus to meet you outside of it."

"If you can, we can meet at the coffee shop a block away, but if not, I'll see you at the entrance of the here." He recommended.

"That should be fi-" Pixal began to answer before tensing up and cutting off. Before Zane could process the behavior, her hand met hard to his face as he received a harsh slap. Blinking in surprise, he looked at Pixal to see her harshly glaring at him. Cryptor had finally entered the lobby. Without much thought after his arrival, Cryptor had possessed Pixal.

"Get out of the tower now, tin-can." He snarled through Pixal, restraining himself from attacking the other android. "I don't ever want to see your petty face in here." Zane stared in shock, not sure how to react, his lack of action only infuriated Cryptor more. Quickly, Cryptor shifted Pixal behind the white Nindroid, grabbing hold of him and flipping him over Pixal's back to land him harshly on the ground, Zane's arm held uncomfortably behind his back as Cryptor pinned him down under Pixal's foot. The action had attracted quite a bit of attention from the people in the room. "When I say to get out I expect action moron. Now are you going to leave?"

Cyrus, who had decided to search the lobby, exited the elevator and was immediately shocked by what he saw. He knew better than to think Pixal would do such a thing. With narrowed eyes, Cyrus hurried over to the scene and grabbed Pixal's shirt and gave it a tug.

"Cryptor, let him go this instance." Cyrus barked. "Do you want to be offline for good?"

Cryptor jumped, un-expecting Cyrus, looking from Cyrus to the pinned Zane. With a grumble and a glare at Zane, he released him and stepped off of him. As Zane slowly took himself back up to his feet, Cryptor glared at Cyrus before looking down at himself. Quickly looking disgusted accompanied by a sound to express the state of mind, he quickly hopped out of Pixal and into Cyrus' chair. Zane having watched Pixal being released, and Cryptor appear on the screen of Cyrus' chair, looked up at Cyrus doubtfully.

"I believe this explains why Pixal was in a rush to get me out of here." He stated, shifting a glance at Cryptor on the screen. Cryptor growled through several nearby speakers, scampering up to Zane and pushing the screen in his face, Zane leaning back at the action.

"I don't need your opinion on my predicament. Zane." Cryptor spat at him, saying his name like it were a disease.

"I'm not going to threaten you Cryptor." Zane replied calmly. "Given what you have done for the city over the past couple of months is quite a heroic act that should be respected. However, I can still see you are the same person you were the last time we met. I do believe I have to thank you for not ripping my face off this time." Cryptor grumbled at Zane's speech, lowering the chair and backing away from Zane, still keeping his harsh glare trained on him.

"I apologize for Cryptor's behavior." Cyrus said flatly, glaring down at the chair. "I figured he would have learned to control himself by now. Perhaps I should teach him that lesson later."

"What did Cryptor make me do anyway?" Pixal asked, still in the dark. Zane glanced at her with a sorrowful expression.

"I don't believe his assault would be best for me to go into details. It wasn't you that did it and that's all I care." Pixal was a bit alarmed by the answer for what he had made her do, but smiled at Zane's answer.

"That deduction is a positive way of looking at it. It may have been my mainframe, but it wasn't me." Cryptor groaned at the two's interaction, crawling a few steps away. Being sickened by their relationship, Cryptor was soon fed up and quickly swiveled the chair around, scampering off towards the elevator. Cyrus sighed and shook his head.

"Take me up to my office ASAP." He said gruffly, still fuming with rage. "I need to have a word with you, mister." Cryptor grumbled, overly irritated with the encounter with Zane. Carrying the inventor into the elevator, he allowed Cyrus to hit the button, not attempting to flee the inventor. His irritation though quickly snapped away at the thought of going up to his office. After remembering what he had done to the place he snickered. Once at his office, Cyrus glared up at the ceiling. He grumbled to himself as Cryptor steered him over to where his desk once was.

"You need to get everything down from the ceiling before we start with this lecture I have in store for you." Cyrus spat. Cryptor frowned, looking up at what he had done.

"What you don't like what I did for you?" He chuckled, jumping out of Cyrus' chair to a screen in the room. Immediately he brought some arms out of the ceiling and began to detach the desk first. Cyrus simply moved out of the way with a grunt. Admittedly, if he had not been stressed and already pissed off, Cyrus probably would have found the prank at least slightly amusing and maybe be a little impressed. Unfortunately for Cryptor, that was not the case. He was fed up with the crap.

"You've been trying me for far too long, Cryptor." Cyrus stated. "You've gone way too far and you're going to be punished for your cruel shenanigans."


	21. Chapter 21

As soon as Cryptor had his office back to normal, Cyrus immediately lectured Cryptor on why his behavior was unacceptable. Cyrus ended up having to raise his voice more than once when arguing with Cryptor. The inventor would not let Cryptor get away with such behavior. Once he was through lecturing Cryptor, Cyrus removed Cryptor from the Digiverse and put him into a small janitorial bot. When he powered Cryptor on, he backed away, expecting Cryptor to be quite angry with the new body.

When Cryptor had been powered on, he was gravely confused. The feeling was so, so wrong. It wasn't like anything he had felt. It was constricting, stiff, and small. He already hated it and he didn't even know what his condition was. It took a lot longer than necessary for his vision to even activate. Blinking as his eyes adjusted, his vision was completely wrong as well. Finally looking past the strange way of seeing, he took notice of Cyrus' towering figure in front of him and jumped in surprise. And his jump of surprise wasn't like a flinch or a stumble back like it would have been but rather like he was sprung up backwards.

Finally trying to figure out his condition, he raised his stiff arms, surprised by the sight, he dropped them and looked down, the best he could, to see the treads that were supposedly supposed to be his feet.

"W-what is this?" He stuttered, in too much shock to even be angry with the inventor, the lower shutter on his eye twitching as he heard his voice admitted from the robot's vocal processor.

"I put you in a standard janitorial bot." Cyrus answered, shifting in his seat. "It's perfect for your punishment. You will be cleaning this sector. Lab, hallway, and a few rooms on this floor." Cryptor jerked, looking at Cyrus in shock.

"NO!" He spat, the vocal box capabilities honestly not doing his angered tone much good. "I am not cleaning anything!" A frown would have been accompanying the best possible scowl the robot to muster up if it had been physically possible for it. It took Cryptor a moment to figure out how to roll the treads on the machine. "You are not making me clean anything! What even is this stupid thing? It's worse than a toaster that is trying to toast a piece of bread while it's being held upside down! It's even worse than a cotton candy machine trying to spin taffy! Get me out of this stupid piece of trash!"

"You are staying in that body until you've learned your lesson, Cryptor." Cyrus said with a stern tone. "And since you're so stubborn, I guess you'll be in it for quite some time." Cryptor growled, glaring at Cyrus. Knowing in situations like this there was no reasoning with Cyrus, Cryptor grumbled, rolling forward and looking down over the table. Looking back up at Cyrus, Cryptor rolled back a little on the table.

"I'm not cleaning anything." Cyrus was about to reply when he heard the door to the lab open behind him. He looked back to see Mindroid standing in the doorway. The little android made a bleeping sound that Cyrus guessed was addressing him. The inventor gave a nod and waved for the android to enter.

"Come on in." The inventor sighed before looking back at Cryptor. "What is it you need, Mindroid?" Mindroid bleeped and beeped as he hurried over to Cyrus' side. From his tone, Cyrus could tell that he was upset about something, but he could not guess what.

"Cryptor, would you mind translating?" Cyrus asked, hoping Cryptor wouldn't be unresponsive. Mindroid, who's attention shifted to the small bot on the table, pointed at Cryptor and tilted his head as he beeped inquisitively. Cryptor blinked, staring at Mindroid very confused. His head tipping to the side as well, he continued to stare.

"I…" He began to say, pausing and looking from Mindroid to Cyrus a couple of times. "I don't know…"

"You don't know? Can't you and Pixal usually understand him?" Cyrus asked, clearly looking confused. "Hm... maybe it's the body." Mindroid's hands went to his hips and he beeped cheerily, eying Cryptor with a smirk hidden by his mask.

"Wow, the ignoramus can't understand me." Mindroid marveled. "That's great. Just wonderful. Then he can't tell that I'm calling him a tin can. That's what he is after all. A big, mean, tin can."

"Well, I guess I'll have to see what he wants later when Pixal returns." Cyrus said with a shrug. Cryptor grumbled, glaring at Mindroid, his lower eye shudder twitching as he listened to Mindroid's beeps. He had no idea what the android was saying, but he had a pretty good feeling he was making fun of him.

"If you are making fun of me Mindroid, I am going to kill you."

"Oh I'm so scared. Please don't hurt me, mighty Cryptor." Mindroid bleeped, though no one could understand him. "I think I like the brute better in this body. I bet I could beat him up. I think I'm gonna beat him up later."

"Hush now." Cyrus said, patting Mindroid's head once before looking back at Cryptor. "If you ever want out of that body, I suggest you get cleaning and learn how to behave like a civil being. I have some things to deal with and I expect you to be done by the time I get back."

"I am not going to clean anything idiot! Just get me out of this stupid tin can!" Cryptor growled, glaring at Cyrus now.

"I stand by what I said, Cryptor." Cyrus said as he reached out and picked Cryptor up off the table and set him on the floor. "You will be stuck in that body until I decide to take you out." Without waiting for a reply, Cyrus spun around and headed for the door. He had a lot to deal with and he did not plan on spending all of his time focusing on Cryptor's bratty behavior. He had yet another interview scheduled with the actual news and not some strange blogger like before. Not to mention he had to speak with the protesters and whatnot. Then he had to deal with Cryptor's repairs without Pixal's help.

Once he made his way down to the lobby, Cyrus headed towards the front entrance. Seeing that the news van was waiting and the news anchor was getting ready, Cyrus prepared himself for the poking and prodding of the press. He also made sure to straighten out his appearance. Then, when the news team entered, he showed them to the first floor conference room. Without much question, the team followed Cyrus to the room, the group all setting up to begin broadcasting. Without further ado, they began as the TV spot light had been switched over to the interviewer.

"Thank you Steve." The woman began, speaking to the man that wasn't even in the room and was back at the network's station. "As you have stated, I am here at Borg Tower with the one and only Cyrus Borg, who has graciously accepted our request for this meeting. As many of our viewers are probably wondering, we will hopefully receive answers to many of our questions." Turning to Cyrus she smiled. "Thank you Cyrus for letting us come here today. I am sure you are quite busy and appreciate that you have made the time for us."

"Not a problem, ma'am," Cyrus said with a nod. He did a good job at hiding his nerves, but his twiddling fingers were a pretty good give away. He had always hated these interviews, mainly because of the pressure. "I always try to make time for these things." The interviewer smiled and nodded at the inventor.

"Since the unfortunate reveal of Gadgetman, many of us have been wondering about them. As they have been identified as the android you built almost two years ago, many of us have been wondering, why? Two years ago, this android was reported to be quite troublesome and was demanded to be deactivated and marked as a failed project for its malicious acts. Why is it you neglected all of our demands and reactivated it, and how long have you been keeping it a secret from us?" Cyrus forced himself to keep a neutral expression. He let out a sigh and shook his head.

"I will be honest with you, I care a lot for that Android." Cyrus began. "He was- he is very close to me and it was hard to keep him off. I know that he's done wrong and there is no excusing it, but I wanted to give him one more chance." Cyrus paused and fixed his glasses. He cleared his throat and began again, "When I turned him on again, I knew that, if approached in the right way, everyone would see him in a different light. Unfortunately, I was unable to think of a way before he took matters into his own hands. On his own, he proved to be a great hero." The woman nodded at his answer.

"The android has done some very heroic acts and was looked up upon, that's where citizen conflict comes in. Many people are still looking up to its night time appearances, while others were quick to turn against it. Some even doubt their trust in you for your decision to keep the robot running. What is your opinion on this?"

"His name is Cryptor and he is not an it, ma'am, and I would appreciate it if you refrained from calling him that." Cyrus said, allowing a look of offense appear on his face. The gall of this woman. She frowned at Cyrus' statement.

"I apologize for my mistake. I guess it is more of a habit to refer to the basic service bots as such. Cryptor, is a more advanced android, much like the white ninja Zane." She apologized to the inventor. Cyrus sighed, then deciding to continue.

"Cryptor may have done wrong, but he certainly deserves some respect. He's not just some machine with no regard for human life. He cares about people other than himself. As far as I'm concerned, he is a person like you and me. Let the public feel how they want about me, I will fight for his right to a second chance."

"It is good to know your input on the situation; however, there is one question some people have been wondering. Why did you let it…him run around with dangerous prototypes that could have harmed civilians and why did you try so hard to find Gadgetman if he was Cryptor?"

"Let him? I did not let him use my prototypes." Cyrus answered, unable to hide his irritation any longer. "I was unaware that he was Gadgetman. If I were behind it, why would I have so desperately tried to find him? Why would I have tried to get those prototypes back? If I were in on it, wouldn't it make more sense for me to have cheered him on? Wouldn't it have made sense for me to give him tools that weren't mere prototypes?" The reporter looked a little surprised by his answer.

"It does make sense you would do so…" She puzzled before looking at Cyrus doubtfully. "But if you didn't know he was Gadgetman, how can we be certain he can be trusted? If he can't even listen to you and is willing to keep such a large secret from you, how can we know we can rely on him in times of need?"

"Are you really questioning his motives?" Cyrus retorted. "If you must know, I am a very worrisome person and Cryptor probably knew that I wouldn't want to risk him getting caught or damaged. While I don't agree with his secretive behavior, I completely understand it and see no reason to not trust him for saving people as a masked vigilante." Cyrus glanced down at his watch and grimaced at the time. "Unfortunately I have already delayed my work enough today, so this interview will have to be cut short." He said with a heavy sigh. "I will try to free up more time and answer more of the public's questions, but for now I am far too busy." She nodded understandingly at Cyrus.

"Thank you Mister Borg for answering our questions. We greatly appreciate the time you made for this event and hope to talk to you again in the future." With a smile, she turned to look at the camera. "Back to you Steve." With that, the crew cut the air and began to clean up, thanking Cyrus once again as they parted. Cyrus soon departed from the conference room, heading towards the elevator. He had to catch up on paperwork before he lost the whole day and he had to check on Cryptor's progress. So, he decided to check the floor the lab was on.

When he got to the floor, Cyrus spotted a door that had a small puddle of water accumulating outside of it. Hearing the sound of running water in it, he opened the door to check it out. As soon as the door cracked open, water poured out of the room, spreading into a thin sheet in the hallway.

Cryptor was found in a flooding room. Inside, it could obviously be seen the struggles he was having. Currently, he had somehow managed to get a bucket stuck on his head, trying to get it off with his limited range of arm movement. The water was coming from a faucet near him, it over filling the conveniently plugged sink and poring onto the floor. Cryptor had been nearly waist high in water and couldn't move due to the strings of a mop being caught in his treads. The robot was obviously very frustrated with his situation, and it didn't look like he was going to be getting out of it on his own any time soon. It wasn't until he felt the water level quickly lower around him that he froze. His hands still holding the handle of the bucket that was pinning his arms down, he looked towards where he knew the door was.

"This looks ridiculous doesn't it?" He mumbled to himself in a volume barely audible. Cyrus stared in at the scene with a deadpan look. He just stayed silent as he looked from the water on the floor to the distressed robot. If he had been in a better mood, he may have found the scene humorous. That was not the case.

With a heavy sigh, Cyrus entered the room and headed over to Cryptor. Before helping the robot, he turned off the faucet and unplugged the drain. Then he pulled the helmet off of Cryptor's head and dropped it without care. Absent mindedly, his right hand ran through his hair as he shook his head in disappointment. He clearly looked worn down from the stress he had been enduring since Cryptor's reveal.

"You are a total mess, Cryptor." He said, his voice sounding just was worn down as he looked. He then picked the small android up and set him on the counter next to the sink. Cyrus began pulling the mop strings from his treads. Cryptor had known it was Cyrus who had opened the door fairly quickly. Upon being released from the binds of the bucket, Cryptor took notice of the absolute mess of the room he had made. Cryptor was greatly disappointed in himself and would be frowning deeply if it was possible. Getting picked, Cryptor watched Cyrus pick the mop out of his wheel.

"You told me to clean and I have no idea how to clean. I hardly know how to clean myself." He grumbled. Cyrus shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment before looked up at Cryptor with the best stern look he could muster at the moment.

"True, but I trusted you of all people to be able to at least get a bucket of water." He retorted tiredly as he continued to free Cryptor's wheels. "You are capable of so much, yet the most simple of tasks are so hard for you." Cryptor grumbled, wanting to free himself from the mop but the body made the task impossible.

"Maybe it would have been easier if I had an instruction manual on how to use this pile of scrap metal."

"Well maybe if you weren't such an ass to everyone you wouldn't be in this mess!" Cyrus shouted. He immediately regretted what he had said. While he was right, he did not need to use such language or raise his voice like that.

"I'm sorry, I'm just so... exhausted from all of this." Cyrus apologized as he removed the last string. He then set Cryptor on the floor before turning around one hundred and eighty degrees and hurrying towards the door. He would call for some real janitorial bots to clean up Cryptor's mess. Cryptor flinched at Cyrus' outburst, staring in shock at him for several moments as he watched Cyrus walk away. Staying in the room still for several minutes, even after Cyrus left, Cryptor finally glanced around at the wet mess he had made. He felt much like he had after his first incident with Zane. He knew he was in trouble and Cyrus was not happy at all with him. With a sigh he finally rolled across the wet ground and out of the room.

Cyrus had entered the lab and called for an employee to send up a few janitorial bots. Then, with yet another heavy sigh, he slouched in his seat. His hand went to the back of his neck and gently tried to soothe a dull pain that he had been feeling all day. Oh how he wished he could just relax for a change. Unfortunately, he would likely not be able to do so for quite some time.

Not wanting to go off and do paperwork just yet, the paraplegic looked over at the table Cryptor's body was laid out on. They had hardly gotten the repairs started. By the looks of it, they would take far longer to fix than originally anticipated. Unfortunately, that meant more trouble from Cryptor if he were put back in the Digiverse. Of course Cyrus could put the AI in the lab computer and keep him there, but Cryptor would hate him for that.

It was not until he heard beeping that Cyrus realized that Mindroid was standing in the doorway. He had yet to attend to the small android's problem. Unfortunately, he could not help the little robot without someone to translate him.

"Oh, Mindroid, I'm sorry." Cyrus sniffled, wiping at his nose with his sleeve. Then he turned towards the door and headed to the small bot. He really had to go and try to get his work done. "I can't help you yet... when Pixal returns, just bring her up to me in my office. In the meantime, could you please watch Cryptor?" Mindroid nodded and beeped as Cyrus steered himself out of the lab and towards the elevator. The inventor stopped and watched as Cryptor rolled past him before entering the elevator and leaving. Mindroid smirked behind his mask and held his arms behind his back, strolling over to Cryptor.

"I'm in charge of you now." He beeped, knowing that Cryptor would not understand. Revenge would be so sweet. When Cryptor heard Mindroid's beeping, he glanced at him before groaning.

"Leave me alone Mindroid." He grumbled, looking forward again and trying to ignore the short, yet taller, android. Mindroid stopped when he was in front of Cryptor. He tilted his head as if he did not understand, beeping in confusion along with his little act. Oh this would be fun. Very fun.

"Don't play stupid with me Mindroid." He growled before going around the droid.

"I'm not the stupid one here, you ignoramus." Mindroid beeped in a tone that sounded just as confused as before. Then with a little chuckle, Mindroid hooked his foot under Cryptor's body and quickly flipped him onto his back. "You're gonna get a taste of your own medicine, tin-can." Cryptor was surprised by Mindroid's attack. With a flat look he stared up at the ceiling.

"Thank you Mindroid. I totally needed that after having a bucket stuck on my head and a mop in my wheels for more than half an hour." He grumbled sarcastically. "Sit me back up moron." Mindroid shook his head and strolled up to the smaller robot with his arms still behind his back. He would not harm Cryptor in this body since the body was not his, but he would bully his tormentor until he was satisfied. He had a little plan for that too.

"Jerk." Mindroid uttered before sitting on Cryptor's chassis. He grabbed the robot's arms and held them still as he rested his feet on Cryptor's face. "You're not so tough now, are you?" Cryptor grumbled when Mindroid decided to turn him into a chair. He knew perfectly well what Mindroid was doing, and he was succeeding at it very well. Cryptor really hated his predicament and was really loathing the body he had been forced into. There was no doubt Cyrus would hear about what Mindroid was doing.

"Mindroid." Cryptor growled, trying to turn his head out of Mindroid's feet. He really wished he could understand the droid. "Get off."

"No." Mindroid said, his voice coming out normal. He smiled as he pressed his heel under Cryptor's head and pushed it into an uncomfortable position. He was having too much fun with such simple teasing. "You are a worthless tin-can who thinks he can treat anyone how you want. Stupid tin-head." Cryptor growled, glaring at Mindroid from the odd angle his head had been forced into.

"You do know Cyrus doesn't tolerate this kind of behavior?" He huffed, just growing increasingly agitated with him. "And you do know I'm not going to be in this stupid tin can forever?" Mindroid just shrugged before getting off of Cryptor, acting as if he had been discouraged by what the other said. Then, the little android helped Cryptor up and onto his treads. He beeped in a faux apologetic way as he waited for his next opportunity to tease the other. Cryptor was a bit relieved when Mindroid finally got off of him, but he had a pretty strong feeling that Mindroid wasn't quite done with him yet. Staying still for a moment, Cryptor pivoted around to look at Mindroid with an annoyed expression. If the Janitorial bot was physically capable of crossing its arms, Cryptor would surely be doing it right now. Mindroid had a lot more power over him at the moment, and the extra foot of height Mindroid had over him didn't help his situation out at all. Another idea came to the little droid's mind as Cryptor stared at him. Behind his mask, Mindroid smirked. He grabbed the janitorial bot's arm and yanked him in one direction. Mindroid beeped in a cheerful tone, acting as if he had something he wanted to show Cryptor.

"Come on." Mindroid spoke with words and not bleeps. Cryptor had immediately resisted against Mindroid's pull, but was clearly outmatched in the strength category.

"Mindroid, let go." He growled, his wheels skidding on the ground as he tried to roll backwards away from the android. "Is it really so hard for you to just leave me alone? I don't want to see whatever it is you want me to." Mindroid continued to pull Cryptor along until he grew tired of Cryptor's struggling. With a huff, Mindroid picked Cryptor off the ground and carried him off down the hall. The janitorial bot was heavier than Mindroid had thought, but he was still able to carry him. When Cryptor had been picked up, he had immediately begun to panic, feeling like he was in a similar situation to one like before, where he ended up getting hung in a closet for half an hour. Mindroid beeped as he brought Cryptor to a large vent. Mindroid smirked and kicked the cover off. When Cryptor had seen the droid kick off the cover to the vent, that old feeling only elevated, making him panic even more. Then with a devious chuckle, Mindroid stuck Cryptor head first into the square hole. Mindroid forced Cryptor in as far as he would go before standing up and dusting his hands off. Getting slid in, unable to do anything against Mindroid, Cryptor immediately tried to get himself out of the crammed space.

"Have fun!" Mindroid spoke, turning to walk off. He did not take off too fast, wanting to hear Cryptor's protests.

"Mindroid! Get back here and get me out!" He shouted at him, hearing him walk away. Continuing to spew threats as well as a few pleads eventually, Cryptor fell silent when he knew the droid was long gone.

Staying still for a bit in the vent, Cryptor growled again before rolling his trends, hoping to manage to roll himself out. The struggling went on for a while, going on and off as he kept giving up.

"I'm going to kill the pipsqueak." He grumbled, giving up once again after who knows what number try it was. Cryptor ended up being lodged in that vent for about two hours. His frustration with the situation only grew as each minute passed. When Cryptor was finally found by his creator, he was a bit relieved.

"Oh goodness!" Cyrus gasped, hurrying over to the vent. The inventor began tugging on the little bot post haste. "Are you okay? You aren't damaged, are you?" Having heard Cyrus's concern and being tugged on, Cryptor just got agitated more.

"How should I know?" He spat, wanting to move his treads, but knowing he shouldn't when Cyrus was holding them. "Just hurry up and get me out of here, I'm sick of this." Cyrus continued to pull and tug, but Cryptor was stuck pretty good. After a while of trying, Cyrus tried wiggling Cryptor loose. Unfortunately, that did not help nor got them any closer to un-lodging Cryptor.

"You're really stuck in there." Cyrus groaned, giving up on pulling Cryptor out. "How did this happen anyway?" Cryptor grumbled, still being stuck in the vent even with Cyrus' help.

"Why don't you ask Mindroid about that?" He huffed, trying to spin himself loose again with his treads after Cyrus let go.

"Mindroid did this?" Cyrus growled. Mindroid had only added to the paraplegic's problems by doing this to Cryptor. "I'm going to have to have a word with that him after we get you free." Cyrus let out an exhausted sigh and shook his head slowly. "I'll tell yah, I've had more than enough of this crap." He murmured as he pulled out a cellphone. "We're going to have to cut you of there." Cryptor groaned at the news, falling limp and giving up on getting out.

"I am going to kill Mindroid." He growled. Cyrus called for someone to come down to help get Cryptor out of the wall. It took a few minutes to cut him out of the wall. Fixing the wall would be just another problem Cyrus would have to deal with, but he had to deal with Cryptor and Mindroid. Taking Cryptor to the lab, Cyrus set him on a table. For a moment, Cyrus just held his aching head, looking quite miserable.

"If I put you back in the Digiverse, will you promise to be good?" He asked after a long, unbroken, silence. Cryptor grumbled at the request.

"If it keeps me from getting buckets stuck on my head, mops in my wheels, getting turning into a chair, having feet shoved in my face, and getting shoved in vents," he listed out all the problems he had had in the short amount of time in the body, "yes, I would."

"Alright." Cyrus sighed, picking Cryptor up off of the table. "Also, you leave Mindroid to me. Don't go stapling him to a wall or hang him out of a window. I have enough problems as it is..."

**A/N: Wow. Looking back, this chapter was both really stupid and really important. I'd remove it if it weren't for the fact it was important. Why do I get ideas like this all the time?**


	22. Chapter 22

After returning Cryptor to the Digiverse, Cyrus grounded Mindroid to his room after a stern talking to. The little android was not happy with the punishment, but he should have thought about that before stuffing Cryptor in the vent. Then it was back to work for the paraplegic. So much paperwork had piled up as well as other things he had to tend to. Cyrus had to stay late and cut down on his breaks for the past week to keep up with work. The extra hours at the office were certainly taking a toll on Cyrus' health, but he did his best to hide it. After a few hours of work, Cyrus was not even halfway through the work he had to do. He was exhausted and already beginning to feel like he was going to pass out. He pushed on anyway. Cyrus was too stubborn to quit.

Since being placed back into the Digiverse, Cryptor had been almost silent. Mostly, he remained in the digital version of the tower, but would occasionally come out to look around the lively and filled workdays of the tower. He didn't dare to interact with anyone, and had practically made himself invisible, refusing to even talk when in the digital realm. Very rarely did he actually make himself visible to people in the tower, mostly just Jackson and occasionally Cyrus, just to talk to them and vanquish his boredom.

Once again, bored of the empty tower, Cryptor escaped its walls to enter the real world. He knew it was rather late and Jackson had gone home with several other employees, so he just explored the vacant halls through the technology. The aimless wandering persisted for a couple of hours before he eventually found himself looking over Cyrus' office through its security camera. Glancing at the room, he was quickly alarmed by what he saw.

There Cyrus was, seated at his desk, half asleep and looking like trash. He had obviously hadn't been home in days, and Cryptor doubted he had been sleeping either. Without much thought, Cryptor hopped onto the computer monitor on Cyrus' desk, displaying himself on its screen.

"What do you think you're doing?" He gruffly inquired through many of the speakers in the room.

"I'm doing work." Cyrus answered without looking up from his papers. He yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Cryptor growled at Cyrus response, growing very irritated with the inventor. He wished he could take away the papers and pen he had, but in the digital realm, completing such a task would be very difficult, dangerous, and time consuming.

"You look like someone dumped a garbage can on you Cyrus. How many days has it been since you went home?" He hissed, glaring at Cyrus as the alternative of taking everything away from him.

"I think maybe about a week." Cyrus answered, glancing up at Cryptor. "I wouldn't be so backed up if I didn't have to juggle dealing with you, the protesters, the media, and my usual responsibilities. Now let me be so I can finish what I can." Cryptor was very shocked to say the least about the answer he received. He was very disappointed in himself he hadn't taken notice sooner.

"A week?!" He roared loudly through the speakers. "What is wrong with you? Nothing should be more important than your own health! How many times do I have to tell you to stop staying overnight?!" Cyrus let out a deep sigh and set his pen down. Although Cryptor was right, Cyrus was too bullheaded to give in.

"This work will never get done if I don't spend extra time here." Cyrus argued. "And it's not like I don't get any sleep at all. I allow myself to rest!"

"Cyrus! You need to go home and sleep in a damn bed!" Cryptor snapped back. "Talking naps every now and then isn't enough! You're going to hurt yourself and make yourself ill by stressing yourself! When was the last time you even looked at yourself? You're disgusting! Screw the media! Why would you even want to face them when you look like flies are going to come to you like you're a five star hotel?! Do you want people to fry French fries in the grease of your hair?!"

"Cryptor just leave me alone, okay?" Cyrus huffed, his face flushing red. He knew he probably looked like hell, but he was too dense to care. Cyrus then picked his pen up again and looked back at his papers. "I promise I'll go home and rest in... in a few hours." Cryptor growled, scowling at Cyrus through the screen.

"I'm not going to leave you alone until you go home! You are way past overdue on your sleep schedule! You need to go home now, not in a few hours!"

"Look, you can't make me leave, so just drop it." Cyrus snapped, writing more vigorously than before. His stubbornness would be the death of him someday. Cryptor stayed silent, staring at Cyrus for a few moments before and idea dawned on him.

"Yes, I can make you leave." He stated before hopping into Cyrus' chair. Taking control of the chair, Cryptor backed away from the desk, and headed towards the elevator. Cyrus was caught off guard and rather startled when Cryptor yanked him away from his desk. He immediately began to protest. Any attempt to turn his chair around was in vain however.

"Cryptor, you need to let me work." Cyrus argued, sounding more whiny than demanding. Cryptor ignored Cyrus' protests, making the elevator come up and open for him to board.

"You can work tomorrow, for now you need to go home and rest."

"Cryptor, I need to get this work done now not later." Cyrus grumbled, sounding more exhausted than he had let on before. "Just let me get a bit more done and I promise to take, I donno, a week off when all of this blows over."

"Cyrus, you are going home now. You've been at the tower for too long. You are going to go home to sleep and clean yourself up." Cryptor urged, shifting the chair in the elevator to get out as soon as the doors opened again. Cyrus let out a very agitated groan, sounding like a child who was being forced to do something.

"Cryptor, please." He growled, attempting to get control of his chair again. "I should've left you in that janitorial bot!" Cryptor snorted at Cyrus' threat.

"You're not going to put me back in one of those tin-cans. All you got from that was more problems." Cyrus grumbled and crossed his arms, pouting like a brat.

"Fine. I'll go home." He huffed. Deep down Cyrus was actually glad he was being sent home, but he was far too thick headed to admit it. Cryptor sighed, relieved that Cyrus had consented, just before the elevator doors finally opened. Immediately clattering out, Cryptor carried Cyrus across the lobby, before coming to a stop. Cryptor frowned, the chair standing in the doorway. He was at the limit he could go in the tower. Grumbling, Cryptor let up control on the chair. "Go home and sleep idiot." He huffed before hopping out of the chair and into a security cam by the door. Cyrus looked down at the screen in front of him and made sure Cryptor was gone. He looked around cautiously, knowing that Cryptor would be watching him. While he did want to go to sleep, he was still too stubborn. For a brief moment, Cyrus thought about his two options. He could just give up and go home like he knew he should or stay and inevitably argue with Cryptor. Unfortunately, Cyrus chose the latter.

"I need to do at least a little more work." Cyrus told himself as he turned around, heading back towards the elevator. As soon as Cryptor saw the stubborn inventor turn the chair back around, he immediately took back control, bringing it to a sudden halt. Grumbling, he turning the chair back around and went towards the door again.

"Go home Cyrus." He growled as he went for the door. "You're not going to stay here any longer." Without much else, Cryptor went back to the doorframe and got out again.

"Cryptor, please." Cyrus pleaded, turning the chair right around when he had control again. "I just want to get it done so I can be rid of it already." Cryptor grumbled taking back the chair when Cyrus turned its back around again.

"Then go home. The sooner you go and get a good amount of sleep, the sooner you can get back to work." He grumbled as he moved the chair back towards the door.

"I'm not even tired, Cryptor." Cyrus hissed. A sleepy yawn escaped him then. He was clearly full of himself. "Let me work." He added, pounding his fist against the handlebars. Cryptor snorted at Cyrus' statement, stopping in the doorframe once again.

"You're full of yourself Cyrus. You were falling asleep on your desk. Go home and sleep idiot, you're acting like a toddler."

"Says the guy who is the master of throwing tantrums." Cyrus retorted. "Just let me work!" Cryptor stayed in the chair standing in the door way for several moments at what Cyrus said. Thinking it through, he growled before getting off the chair.

"Get out of here Cyrus and go home!" He snarled just before the fire alarm started blaring throughout the building. It wasn't much longer before the sprinkler systems set off, showering everything in the lobby.

"Oh, you're absolutely impossible." Cyrus growled in agitation as he was drizzled on. He roughly gripped the handlebars to his chair and slouched in defeat. "Fine, I'll go home. Stop soaking the lobby." With that, Cyrus finally exited the building. Once he was a few feet away, Cyrus looked back briefly, sighing heavily. His body felt so heavy now that he was outside and he realized just how exhausted he was. He would have to apologize to Cryptor in the morning.

"Goodnight." he murmured to no one as he began heading off again. He had a feeling he was going to be sleeping hard tonight.


	23. Chapter 23

It was midday. Cyrus sat at his desk, drawing up some blueprints. He had actually taken a break from the mountains of paperwork to spend some time to plot out new inventions. Of course even that was tiring. His hands and wrists were already aching from working nonstop. To top it all off, he was physically exhausted and very stressed.

"Maybe a little break wouldn't hurt." He murmured as he set his pencil down. As Cyrus was about to put his head down, the elevator doors opened and an employee stepped in. Cyrus sighed heavily and sat up as straight as he could. He knew that something would happen to ruin his one break.

"What is it?" He asked, annoyance blatant in his tone.

"There's... there's something on the assembly line you should see." The employee answered quickly.

"I'll be right down." Cyrus grumbled, steering himself out from behind his desk. He then made his way over to the elevator and boarded with the employee.

Once at the assembly line, Cyrus could see just what the employee was concerned about. On the belt was a large, terrifying tank like vehicle. It had a giant saw blade among other sharp attachments. It was rather impractical in design, but quite impressive. Cyrus frowned as he watched the many robotic arms putting on the finishing touches before the tank was complete.

"What the hell is that thing?" He asked loud enough for his voice to carry through most of the large room. Cryptor was in the room supervising the construction of the large tank. That day, he had figured out how to access the archive of blueprints, and how to mix them together. With the knowledge, he had managed to make the tools assemble what was now the center of the room. Honestly, he was quite proud of what he had made, and had laughed a bit through the speakers of the room when Cyrus had asked what it is he had made.

"It's the Destructoid." He answered, coming up with the name on the fly as he switched to a large screen in the room and sending a glance at what he had made. "I got bored so I made something."

"I-I see that." Cyrus said slowly. He glanced between the monitor Cryptor was on and the 'Destructoid.' Cryptor seemed very proud of his creation. "Why did you build a tank? What would you need a tank for?" Cryptor frowned after hearing Cyrus' question. In all honestly, he didn't know why he built a tank, he just wanted to build a tank.

"I wanted to make a tank." He mumbled, honestly not that quietly since it came through almost every speaker in the room. "But that's beside the point! It's got a lot of features!"

"Cryptor, you can't have a tank." Cyrus said bluntly. He hated to break it to Cryptor, but there was just no way could he allow Cryptor to have such a thing. "We aren't going to war. Nor do we need you scaring the crap out of the civilians." Cryptor looked greatly disappointed by what Cyrus said, switching to a smaller screen in the room closer to the Destructoid.

"But what if I need it in the future?"

"Cryptor, I doubt we'll ever need a tank like this." Cyrus said with a matter of fact tone to his voice. He gripped the handles of his chair. He was too tired to argue, but he had to. "People will just question why I'm allowing you to build weapons of war. Now cease this childish behavior."

"But it could be useful! You never know what might happen!" Then without warning, he hopped out of the screen and into the Destructoid itself. Its engine roaring to life, Cryptor rolled it backwards a little. "Look, the arms have a very wide range of motion and it can shoot explosive projectiles." He explained, making example with the arms and a slot in the front heating up and glowing before he defused it. "And this blade can cut through almost anything!" Spinning the saw blade, he accidentally hit an assembly arm, slicing off its head. Stopping immediately and quickly hopping out into a screen, Cryptor looked at the arm with a frown. "Oops."

"Cryptor, must you always break things?" Cyrus growled, knowing he would have to have that arm repaired and fill out the extra sheets of paperwork for it. Cryptor was far too careless and Cyrus was nearly at his wits end. He was far too stressed to deal with this. "That thing is going to be dismantled. It's too dangerous. If you want a vehicle, I will design you one that's less... terrifying." Cryptor looked clearly offended by Cyrus conclusion.

"It's not terrifying and it's not dangerous! I wouldn't go around sawing buildings in half and exploding parks!"

"Cryptor, I'm far too stressed to deal with this." Cyrus hissed. A hand ran through his hair as he glared over at the Destructoid. "Dismantle that thing this instance." Cryptor glared at Cyrus through the screen before taking over the Destructoid again, it once again roaring to life and lighting up.

"You are not dismantling this." He growled, rolling it back more and spinning the blade, coming close to cutting more machines in the room. "There are plenty of other things I can disassemble as well with the destruction of this."

"Cease your childish behavior." Cyrus grumbled through gritted teeth. Cryptor was impossible. He was behaving like a two year old with a new toy. This argument wouldn't go anywhere good and would only result in more stress on Cyrus' part. With Cryptor having full reign of the tower and its technology, Cyrus knew he would have to give in to his brat's wishes. "We will keep the damn thing if you really insist on being a toddler." He said, sounding defeated. Having Cyrus give in, Cryptor ceased spinning the blade, and slowly shut off different components before getting out of it. Though he was satisfied, he wasn't overly thrilled about being called a toddler.

"It's not like you go and disassemble stupid things like your turbo jet powered, suborbital golf cart." He muttered, near as quiet as he could on the speakers.

"That's different because my failures aren't highly destructive weapons of war." Cyrus retorted, looking back at the Destructoid. How would they even store that thing? It was too large for the hall of failures and it certainly could not stay in the assembly room much longer. "We'll have put it in the storage room the second below ground floor." Cyrus narrated his own thoughts.


	24. Chapter 24

About a week after Cryptor forced Cyrus home, Cyrus had managed to catch up his work. Due to not having mountains of papers to read, sign, or approve, the paraplegic was able to get further in Cryptor's repairs. By the next week Cryptor's body was ready for him to return. Cyrus sat next to the table Cryptor's body was laid out on, admiring his work. Cryptor's body looked great, much better than when they had found in on the front steps. Cyrus smiled and looked down at his chair, which was currently controlled by Cryptor. He was happy that Cryptor would be in his body soon again.

"You ready to leave the Digiverse?" He asked. "Or would you prefer to be put back in your body after my press meeting?" Cryptor had the chair tilted in a manner to allow him to view the work on the body.

"Why would I want to wait even longer?" He scoffed at the question. "I'm getting sick of this digital prison." Cyrus chucked and gave his chair a pat, as if he were patting Cryptor on the shoulder.

"I'll go get you out of the Digiverse then." Cyrus announced. "Take me up to my office so I can pull you out of there." Cryptor snorted at Cyrus' statement.

"You take yourself up there. I'll meet you up there." He retorted before hopping out of the chair and disappearing from the room. Cyrus chuckled and took hold of his handlebars, immediately turning himself around and headed out of the lab. After a short trip to the elevator, Cyrus got on board. He looked forward to seeing Cryptor in his body again. Cyrus grinned the whole ride up to his office. Once the elevator doors opened, he got off and hurried over to the main computer.

"It should take no more than a few minutes to get you back in your body." He narrated, already pulling up what he needed to remove Cryptor. Cryptor had watched Cyrus enter the room and approach the main computer, before he himself hopped into a nearby computer, watching the inventor pull everything up.

"A few minutes better mean a few minutes. I don't want to lose a lot of time inactive." He warned, hopping to a different computer monitor. "Don't take long. I'll see you when I have a body." With that he flickered off of the monitor, exiting the physical world to enter the digital realm. Cyrus took Cryptor's warning in mind as he pulled Cryptor from the computer. Cryptor had always hated being off too long, which was understandable. Taking his data out of the mainframe took nearly two minutes. Once Cryptor was out and in the thumb drive, Cyrus hurried down to the lab, which took about a minute. Then, hastily, Cyrus began uploading Cryptor to the computer in the lab, which, unlike the rest in the tower, was not connected to the others. Once in the computer, Cyrus was able to transfer Cryptor back into his new and improved body.

Cyrus, believing that anything could be improved upon, had made a few mild alterations and had even added a few new features. He would have to let Cryptor know what they were before he discovered them on his own. That would not end well for anyone. When Cryptor's AI was successfully returned to his body, Cyrus powered Cryptor on. When Cryptor appeared to be booted up, Cyrus checked the time.

"That took about nine minutes." He stated. "How do you feel?" When Cryptor had been powered on in his body, it took him a bit to process the change as he stared up at the ceiling. Hearing Cyrus speak, Cryptor was satisfied with the time and finally attempted to move. As he had made a move to sit himself up, he rather quickly lost control and his arm collapsed under him, almost falling all the way back to the table. Grumbling and clearly frustrated, Cryptor more carefully sat himself up right. The slip of the movement bothered the Nindroid, but he knew that it wasn't problem with the body, but rather a fact that he wasn't used to _having_ a body anymore.

"I feel weird." He finally acknowledged the inventor, staring at his body before shifting a look at Cyrus.

"Well, we did have to replace a lot of your parts." Cyrus explained, shrugging his shoulders. That was a bit of an understatement though. "I have to admit that I did... add a few new features." Cryptor looked at Cyrus quizzically as he slowly and carefully shifted his legs to dangle off the edge of the table.

"...New features?"

"It's mainly just few... tune ups. One of which being that I enhanced your long fall ability, meaning you can withstand landing from larger heights." Cyrus explained, patting Cryptor's leg. He appeared quite proud of himself. "And seeing how you liked those magnetic boots, I just gave you that ability without them. That and two more important features." Cryptor looked down at his feet briefly, quite intrigued by the news, before looking back up at the inventor.

"Two more important features?"

"Yes, but we'll get to those later." The inventor replied, glanced at the door before looking up at Cryptor with a shy smile. Cyrus then cleared his throat. "Excuse me for a moment. I'll be back shortly." Cyrus chuckled as he backed himself up before spinning around and bolted from the room. Once he was far enough down the hall, Cyrus pushed his sleeve up and revealed a strange looking watch like device. Then, with a smirk, he pressed a button on the side. Then there was a little beep.

"Cryptor, can you hear me?" Cyrus asked, speaking into the watch. He could only hope that the communication link would work. Cryptor was a bit confused why Cyrus had left so quickly, but didn't question it. Soon after he had left, Cryptor made an attempt to stand up, but that was short lasted. Very quickly he fell down to the ground, glad that Cyrus wasn't in the room to see that. Grumbling to pick himself up, he quickly froze after hearing a beep ring in his head followed by Cyrus' voice.

"Great, so you installed a communication device." He observed, communicating back to Cyrus as he picked himself up off the ground. "Just what I need, to hear your voice in my head all the time."

"Oh, shut up." Cyrus groaned at Cryptor's response. "You can use this device to contact the police, the fire department, me, Pixal, and I was kind enough to put Jackson's number in there." Cryptor smirked at the part about Jackson, leaning against the table to keep standing as he thought of all the possibilities.

"Not too bad then, I guess." He responded. "So it's more of a phone than a stupid walkie-talkie."

"Yes, I suppose it is." Cyrus replied. "I figured it would be handy when... if you start patrolling the streets again." Cyrus was quiet for a moment before adding, "I'm going to come back." Then he powered off the device and turned back towards the lab. Cyrus then entered and found that Cryptor was standing.

"Are you able to walk?" He inquired. Cryptor glanced at Cyrus with a frown, then looking down at his feet on the ground.

"Probably." He answered, looking back up at him. Cryptor really hadn't tried walking yet, and he doubted he would do very well having so much trouble even standing.

"Take things slowly until you're are comfortable in your body again, okay?" Cyrus sighed, hoping that Cryptor would heed his warning. Cryptor was many things, but he was thick headed sometimes. Cryptor would probably get himself hurt if no one watched him.

"I'll be fine." Cryptor grumbled at Cyrus warning. Trying to let go of the table, he quickly wobbled before grasping it again quickly.

"None the less, I'm going to stay here and help you adapt to your body again." Cyrus shrugged. Cyrus got closer to Cryptor so he could help if needed. "Let's try standing without the table again. Use my chair for balance instead."

"I don't need help." Cryptor growled, clenching his teeth as he tried lifting off of the table again. Quickly, again, he lost balance, and fell into Cyrus' chair, growling and pushing off of it and grabbing the table. With a huff, he glared at Cyrus.

"You clearly need help, Cryptor." Cyrus said, shaking his head slowly. Cryptor was just as stubborn as Cyrus. "Just swallow your pride and let me at least get you use to walking." Cryptor growled, leaning on the table as he crossed his arms.

"Like you know how to walk." Cryptor muttered. "I can do it on my own." Cyrus frowned upon hearing Cryptor's retort. That jab hurt. It hurt a lot. But Cyrus did not let it show.

"Fine, you can stumble around all you want." He huffed. "Have fun falling on your ass." Cryptor frowned at Cyrus' comeback, carefully and successfully shifting his feet before glaring at Cyrus.

"Don't you have a press meeting you said you have to go to?" Cyrus glanced at the clock and shrugged, tapping his fingers again the handles of his chair.

"Yeah." He shrugged, turning back towards the door. "I want you to meet me in my office when it's over." Cyrus added on his way out. He could only hope that Cryptor would be careful while he was gone. Once Cyrus had left, Cryptor had tried readjusting to having a body, which he could say he wasn't doing very well at. Having fallen several times, Cryptor had eventually readapted. Having succeeded at the task though, Cryptor was completely lost on what to do, having been in the Digiverse for so long. Finally, he decided to go pester Jackson, deciding to check the testing room first. When the doors to the testing room opened, many of the employees glanced at Cryptor. Most went right back to work, but Jackson immediately charged towards his friend. The employee wore an elated grin as he came to a near abrupt stop in front of the android.

"Wow. You look brand new!" He marveled, giving Cryptor a speedy look down. Then Jackson pulled the android into a tight embrace, pinning Cryptor's arms to his sides. "It's good to see that you in a body again." Cryptor was a bit surprised by Jackson's embrace, unsure how he should react at first. Finally clearing his throat, he jerked his arms up to get it out of the hold before the other to shove Jackson off.

"Right, it's good to have a body again. Strange too, I'm still use to being the tower." Jackson took a half step back, still grinning ear to ear.

"I bet." He laughed, crossing his arms. The employee gave Cryptor another little look down. "Cyrus sure made you look... shiny." Cryptor raised a brow at his statement before looking down at himself, examining his exposed arm.

"I suppose. It is new, mostly. I haven't exactly taken any beatings in this yet."

"Well, I bet you can't wait to go out and earn some new battle scars." Jackson chuckled.

"Yes, I'm sure I'll be glad to get some part or another blasted off of me." Cryptor huffed, crossing his arms. Jackson glanced back at his work station and sighed.

"I've already taken my break, so I have to get back to work. Would you like to join me?"

"I don't see why not. It's not like I have anything better to do."

"Alrighty then!" Jackson said, promptly taking Cryptor by his arm and pulling him towards their station. He had missed working with Cryptor while he was without a body. Of course having Cryptor back would probably lose its charm fairly soon. Once at his station, Jackson handed Cryptor the clipboard and pens. Then he grabbed a random prototypes, examining it thoroughly. "So, is your new body better than your old body?" Jackson asked as he inspected the device a bit more. Due to an accident he had during Cryptor's absence, he had become more careful and inspect the outside of the devices. It was a precaution to make sure the designs were not flawed. Cryptor shrugged at the question, tapping the pen on the clipboard he had been handed.

"I suppose it is. It's been upgraded a bit. I can sustain more damage, and Cyrus built the magnetic boots into my feet as well as a communication system."

"Oh, is that why there's a little clanging sound when you walk?" Jackson asked, looking up from the prototype. "That's pretty cool I guess."

"Clanging sound?" Cryptor frowned at Jackson's words. If there was a clanging sound when he walked, he hadn't taken notice of it. Having been out of a body, he had forgot a bit what it sounded like when he walked. Sitting down the clipboard and pen, Cryptor angled his foot to look at the bottom of it, grabbing his foot and looking a bit surprised by what he saw. As far as he was aware it wasn't anything like on the boots. With a frown, his slid his thumb around the small hole, tracing the metal ring. Not sure what it was, he went to sit his foot down. Unfortunately, something clicked before he got it all the way down. A jet of purple fire shot out of his foot, knocking Cryptor off his feet with a gasp. Soon after the other foot let out the flame as well, blasting him into the wall behind him hard and leaving sear marks where he once stood. The jets cutting off, Cryptor fell to the ground, leaving a large dent where he had hit. Hitting the floor, Cryptor groaned, shaking his head before looking at his feet. "That would have been nice for Cyrus to tell me about…" The entire testing room had been startled by the event. The employees looked quite startled by what they had witnessed. There were many ways Cryptor discovering his rocket feet could have gone wrong. Jackson, being the only one who cared about the android, hurried over to Cryptor and knelt besides him.

"Are you okay?" He asked, sounding very concerned. "Did you break anything?" Cryptor grumbled, shifting a glare at Jackson for showing concern.

"I'm fine." He growled, pressing his hand on the wall behind him to stand up. Getting to his feet, he stumbled a couple of steps before looking back at the damage he had done to the wall. "Cyrus really should have told me about that."

"Maybe he forgot." Jackson suggested. He marveled at the large dent Cryptor left behind. Cryptor was lucky he had sustained no real damage from that. At least not that Jackson could see. "We should tell him about this accident."

"Obviously." Cryptor snorted, crossing his arms as he looked at the dent. "I'll tell him later."

"So... shall we get back to work then?" Jackson asked slowly. Cryptor stayed silent for a couple of seconds before nodding.

"Yeah…" He drawled, turning back to the table to pick up the pen and clipboard he had set down. Jackson shrugged and headed back to their station. He then snagged the prototype he had been examining off the ground. He had dropped it after being startled by Cryptor's rocket feet. Luckily it was not busted.

"Do you think you have any more of those... features?" He asked, not really focusing on his work just yet.

"I hope not." Cryptor huffed, shifting awkwardly on his feet. "Unless wings sprout out of my back, I don't think so." Jackson just chuckled and nudged Cryptor with his elbow. The two continued with their work. After testing many random prototypes, Cryptor was paged by Cyrus. His press meeting had come to a close and he needed to have a word with Cryptor. When he received the call from Cyrus, Cryptor had freaked out, having clearly forgotten about the built in communication. After recovering though, he affirmed Cyrus' order and left Jackson to go up to his office. Exiting the elevator, he looked towards Cyrus for whatever it is he wanted to say. Cyrus smiled when Cryptor entered.

"Hello, Cryptor." He greeted his creation. Not wanting to beat around the bush, Cyrus decided to cut to the chase. "I called you up here to keep you up to pace with the situation pertaining to your freedom. The public still is not sure what to do with you. Roughly forty two percent of Ninjago think you should be terminated, forty four percent think you deserve a second chance, and fourteen percent is undecided." Cryptor crossed his arms, leaning on a wall.

"I don't care what people think, I just want to know whether or not you're going to have to deactivate me again" Cyrus sighed, steering himself out from behind his desk.

"Right now it's hard to tell what your fate will be." He said with a slow nod. "If we can win over the undecided part of the population, perhaps we can keep you online." Cyrus paused and looked to his left. He prayed that he would not be forced to offline his precious creation. "I'll work as hard as I can to make the public see that you are capable of good," he added, looking back at Cryptor. "I won't shut you down again. I give you my word." Cryptor nodded, walking back towards the elevator and hitting the button.

"I'm sure you will." He said in a tone that clearly said he didn't believe him. "Whatever the result, let me know when there is one. I don't want to know the stupid statistics; statistics don't do anything for me." The elevator had arrived relatively fast. Looking at it, Cryptor then entered it, pressing a floors button before poking back out of it briefly. "Also, you might want to get that wall in the testing room fixed." He mentioned as a side note before letting the doors close.


	25. Chapter 25

The debate on whether Cryptor should remain online had gone on for about another month before the public came to a conclusion. Their decision was shocking to most. Of course Cyrus had to report to Cryptor shortly after receiving the news, having little time to react. He called Cryptor up to his office to let him know. When Cryptor arrived, Cyrus waved him over.

"I have news on your predicament," he said, sounding rather serious. Entering Cyrus' office, Cryptor frowned at Cyrus's immediate statement. Having a mix of emotions from, irritated, to worried, he carefully approached Cyrus.

"It's actual news and not just statistics right?"

"It's news. Like the answer to whether you'll be free or not," Cyrus said with a slow nod. The paraplegic steered himself over to Cryptor. He took Cryptor's hand and held it as he tried to find the right words. The other hand went into his jacket as if he were reaching for something. Having his hand held, Cryptor quickly shot his gaze at Cyrus' hand in his pocket before he ripped his hand out of Cyrus' grasp. Crossing his arms, he stepped back a couple of steps.

"You don't need to hold my hand, idiot." He growled. If the public had made the decision to power him down again, he would let it happen, even though he really didn't want to. He had never expected the public to allow him to stay online, so he was fully prepared to be powered off, even if he would do a little protesting. "Stop procrastinating and just say what it is already." Cyrus sighed and pulled out an opened envelope. Showing it to Cryptor, Cyrus grinned.

"This is a form you have to sign." He explained. "It says that you are free to go if you agree to never harm an innocent citizen and if the contract is breached, you will be tried in a court of law like anyone else." Cryptor blinked, staring at the envelope, not sure how he was supposed to react. The answer he had received was obviously not one he had been expecting at all. His arms now uncrossed, he tried to figure out some way to react to the news, but was really lost. Finally taking action, and taking the envelope from Cyrus, he inspected it over, holding it carefully like it might explode if touched the wrong way. Cyrus chuckled and shook his head as Cryptor cautiously inspected the envelope.

"Cryptor, you're free." Cyrus repeated, grinning from ear to ear. "All it takes is a signature and you're free. We should celebrate." Cryptor nodded slowly as he still inspected the envelope. Then a thought coming to mind, he frowned.

"…How do I sign something?"

"I'll show you." Cyrus said, waving for Cryptor to come with him over to the desk. Once at his desk, he took the envelope from Cryptor and pulled the forms out. He gave the contract a quick skim before pointing at a blank line. "You sign your name here. Then once more at the very bottom of the page and the date next to it." Cryptor looked at the paper, reading it through thoroughly to make sure he understood everything. He had to make sure he knew everything on it, because if he messed up on anything that would likely be the end of it for him. Having read it through, he looked at the blank line before standing up a little straighter, looking at the paper with an annoyed expression.

"What's even the point of signing something like this? Most of this seems like basic common knowledge, it seems pointless."

"Well, signing a legal document means you agree to what the contract is asking from you." Cyrus explained. "You're lucky that the conditions asked aren't outrageous considering how many people still aren't comfortable with you." Cryptor frowned, crossing his arms.

"But why sign? Why can't I just agree? How does writing my name agree to anything?" Cyrus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Cryptor, you're being very difficult for someone who's ticket to freedom is sitting right there in front of him." The inventor drawled. "But, to answer your questions, signing a legal document provides proof of agreement, is legally binding, and officiates an agreement."

"Fine." Cryptor huffed, searching the desk for a pen to use. Finding one and grabbing it up, he stared at the blank line for a couple of seconds before finally writing out his name rather carelessly. "There, I wrote my name." Cyrus shook his head and gave Cryptor's back a pat.

"I honestly can't believe that you were this difficult." He faked a chuckle, taking the papers and folding them neatly. "I'll get this sent back and you will probably be free to leave the tower tomorrow morning. Congratulations. If it weren't for your secretive heroism, this may have had a different outcome." Cryptor nodded slowly, still having a bit of trouble believing he would be able to leave the tower; that he wouldn't be deactivated again.

"I didn't like the secretive heroism." He answered. "It was annoying. I hated being called Gadgetman. The name is terrible."

"Yeah, I never cared for the name either. It was very clunky sounding," Cyrus chuckled, smiling fondly at his creation. "At least you get to be you now."

**A/N: Well, that's it everyone. That's the end. Happy Ending hooray! I honestly don't really like how this ended, but you know. It's got to come to an end eventually and we weren't exactly sure on how to end it, so why not just a contract? Meh, not that great, I know. This sequel was more for fun, entertainment, and humor, and that's what it was, not really for story quality. Anyway, that's all! I do hope you enjoyed this, and I seriously apologize for how long it took to post, seriously. I feel terrible for making you all wait so long. Louis and I are making yet another sequel to this, but it's more for just for us, and don't expect it to ever just be posted. We just wanted to RP our OCs in this AU. Louis and I however have been conversing about making another AU than this one though, that may or may not happen. It will be very, very dark and not very nice, but keep an eye out for that if you're interested in our other works! Now, I must bid you farewell and hope you have a good day!**


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